


Moving Parts

by kitkatt0430



Series: Neighbors and Butterflies [4]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Artistic License - Science, Artistic License - Technology, Case Fic, Eobard continues to be creepy, F/M, Guilt, Julian is going by Julian Desmond instead of Julian Albert, M/M, Minor Eddie Thawne/Iris West, Past Character Death, Ronnie and Stein show up, Stalking, The Man on Fire, hints of Frost, internal affairs - Freeform, mick is a firefighter, murder investigation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:41:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 26,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24547789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkatt0430/pseuds/kitkatt0430
Summary: The investigation into who has been spying on Barry has stalled with no way to trace the signal from the cameras, but another case is heating up.  A CSI - Hunter Zolomon - has been discovered falsifying evidence and Julian suspects that's just the tip of the iceberg when he discovers Zolomon's ex-girlfriend has been missing for months.  Meanwhile Clarissa Stein has gone to the police over a man who attempted to break into her home and whose knowledge of things only her missing husband would have known sets Eddie on the path of reopening Martin Stein's missing person's case.
Relationships: Barry Allen & Lisa Snart, Barry Allen/Leonard Snart, Cisco Ramon/Hartley Rathaway, Clarissa Stein/Martin Stein, Mick Rory & Leonard Snart, Ronnie Raymond/Caitlin Snow
Series: Neighbors and Butterflies [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1522898
Comments: 42
Kudos: 106





	1. Chapter 1

Barry collapsed onto the couch with a deep, dramatic sigh. A beer appeared on the coffee table in front of him.

"Looked like you could use one," Mick told him gruffly.

"Thanks," Barry offered him a smile. After Len had discovered that Barry's apartment was bugged the week before, Barry, Len, and Lisa had come to stay at Mick's apartment. Lisa in the guest room and Barry and Len sharing the pull out couch. They were finally going home on Saturday, three days away. The department had given them an all clear, but the locks weren't going to be changed until Friday and none of them were comfortable in their apartments - Barry's and Lisa's - at the moment.

There had been cameras in every room in Barry's apartment. But only Lisa's living room had a camera and microphone in it, however, making it pretty clear the main target was Barry. The idea that someone had been watching him eat, sleep, use the bathroom, hang out with Lisa, have sex with Len...

Barry was freaked out enough by that. But it got worse. His lab at work had been bugged. Joe's first floor was bugged. Barry's old room was bugged. Eddie's living room...

He had to pass off some of his work to other CSIs because he was being tied up in the investigation. Despite the numerous wifi cameras and microphones, no one had been able to trace who'd been watching the feeds. And Barry had to go through interview after interview as detectives tried to determine if he was being stalked due to a case he was currently on or had previously been on or if it was because of the lawsuit he'd leveled against the city earlier that year or if it had to do with him being the Flash or...

The only place Barry regularly spent time that wasn't bugged was STAR Labs, but it had an active CCTV camera. Dr. Wells said there was no evidence it had been hacked, but Barry had a feeling whoever was spying on him had been watching him there too.

And while the beer wasn't going to so much as make Barry tipsy, the taste of the alcohol was still somewhat soothing in its own way. A sort of placebo affect that helped Barry to unwind a little after a hard day.

"You seem extra stressed tonight," Lisa said, settling beside Barry and handing him one of the plethora of cookies she'd been stress baking that week.

"I am." Barry bumped shoulders with her. "I spent the morning telling Detective Johnson that there really wasn't any more I could tell her about my cases or the time I've spent at STAR Labs lately or anything else that might help her catch our stalker so could I please go back to work? Then I spent the afternoon talking to Internal Affairs."

"What? They're not going to punish you for being stalked, are you? It's not your fault there was a hidden camera in your lab..." Lisa trailed off as Barry shook his head negatively.

"No that's not it."

"Heard there was a dirty cop being investigated at the firehouse today," Mick offered. "Thought it was just gossip."

"Unfortunately, no. But not a cop; that part you heard wrong." Barry sighed, nibbled on his cookie. "One of the other CSIs. Hunter Zolomon. IA arrested him Monday evening for evidence tampering and falsifying reports. I don't know him very well so I couldn't tell them much, but I still lost most of my afternoon to IA anyway. And where there's one scientist gone rogue, they always check for others. Which means every CSI is going to have random tests they've performed over the last six months rechecked by outside labs. And whenever the CSIs fall under scrutiny, I always get hit harder than most. Because of my dad."

Hopefully it wouldn't be too bad, though. One of the detectives from IA was also Barry's previous point of contact when he'd been helping to gather evidence against Jennings. He wouldn't just assume Barry was clean, but he was a lot more likely to treat Barry the same as the other CSIs.

"Well, just make sure any consoling Len does for you tonight stays PG-13, not R," Mick told him. "I don't want to have to burn the couch 'cause Len had sex on it."

Barry choked. And then laughed, which seemed to have been Mick's goal because the older man looked rather smug as he drank his own beer.

* * *

Caitlin frowned and looked over her shoulder. No one there, but she could have sworn she'd heard something.

"Hello?" she called politely, hand slipping into her purse for the pepper spray she kept in there.

No response. No sound of feet on concrete. Not even the sound of anyone else breathing.

Cisco and Hartley had gone home earlier and it wasn't like the three of them were Dr. Wells' only employees left at STAR Labs, though the number had whittled down considerably and none of the others were involved in meta human research with them. Most would've gone home already as well. The parking garage was nearly empty, save for Caitlin's car and two more parked closer to the elevators.

Still, something had given Caitlin goosebumps and the absolute certainty she was being watched.

In one hand, Caitlin clutched the canister of pepper spray. In the other, she held her keys between her fingers, ready to do damage with her fist if she needed to. She started walking again and the itch on the back of her neck stayed constant even as she got into her car. She had to peer into the windows first to be sure no one was waiting for her inside. And then, once inside, she locked the doors and leaned her forehead against the steering wheel, hands clutching the wheel tightly as she struggled to calm down.

She'd been having paranoid moments like this all week and though Caitlin tried to tell herself it was just a reaction to learning someone had been spying on Barry...

Caitlin was truly starting to believe it was something more. Someone was watching her.

Letting out a shaky breath, Caitlin straightened up, put her car in gear, and drove home.

Once her car was out of the garage... only then did the man come walking down from the second floor parking area. His hands catching on fire as he headed out of the garage.

* * *

Julian Desmond had a rather unproductive day himself. He suspected that none of the CSIs had managed to get much accomplished when it came to processing evidence. Over the weekend his lab had been ransacked for evidence of hidden cameras and he'd only just managed to get everything back the way he liked it the day before.

There were no cameras, but there might have been at one point. Rumor had it that Allen was being spied on by person, or persons, unknown. Julian was fairly certain the rumor had truth to it, as Barry Allen and his boyfriend and his boyfriend's sister had all shown up at Captain Singh's office the previous Friday... shortly before detectives swept his lab for bugs. There was no proof that there'd been cameras present when Julian's lab had been Barry's... but there were unusual dust patterns in the vents that suggested a camera might have been there at some point.

Perhaps the surveillance had to do with Barry's unusual relationship with IA. It was something of an open secret that at one point Allen had been quietly collecting evidence of cops behaving badly for them. But IA tended to ride Allen harder than other CSIs, as evidenced by their treatment of him during the debacle with Dibny nearly two years earlier. Still, if someone had taken particular offence to Allen's history doing some of Internal Affair's investigating for them... it'd be motive for the spying.

Julian liked his job and even liked working with the officers at the precinct... but it had always rubbed him the wrong way how much those cops hated the very existence of Internal Affairs. If they were doing their jobs right, then they had no reason to fear IA. And rooting out a dirty cop? It hurt knowing your coworker wasn't aboveboard, but better to be rid of bad rubbish than to unknowingly enable them.

Only in this case the coworker being rooted out wasn't a cop. Julian had met Hunter Zolomon on his first day on the job. Julian's first day, not Hunters. They'd been friendly, had lunch together a few times over the years. They didn't know each other well enough to be considered friends, though. Julian wasn't exactly one to mix his professional and personal life like that, preferring his friends be people he could truly de-stress with and get away from work related conversations. Not that Hunter was prone to making friends at work either. The one person Julian knew Hunter had been close to was his girlfriend Amelia. When she'd broken up with him in January, right before Julian's transfer to the on site lab, Hunter had been distraught.

He had to admit... he'd felt a bit like a snitch, telling investigators about what little he knew of Hunter's personal life. 

Settling onto his sofa with a beer in hand - Julian had gone native, his beer was cold - he tried to remember Amelia's last name. He was a _Doctor Who_ fan, so his first thought was Pond. But her name hadn't been Pond. Or Williams, for that matter. She wasn't a redhead either. Brunette. 

This was going to bother him all night if he couldn't figure it out. So Julian grabbed a pad of paper and let his hand sketch absently while he thought it over. G... her surname started with a G, hadn't it? That's right. Hard sounding name. In fact... he'd been working a case involving a garrote when Hunter had first mentioned Amelia to him, hadn't he? That's right. Her name had been practically a homophone for garrote and Julian had been rather annoyed that's where his brain had gone.

Amelia Garret. 

The pad of paper beneath Julian's hand now sported swirls and stars and, unfortunately, a noose-like image. Inspired by the word association, no doubt. The top page went into the shredder, like most of the doodles he did went trying to focus his thoughts better. And then he settled at his laptop. He probably shouldn't. He definitely shouldn't. But he went to Facebook anyway and did a search on Amelia Garrets in Central City.

There was only one... and she'd been missing since March.

* * *

Hartley had been avoiding Harrison pretty much all week. Not that they didn't see each other at all, but Hartley was polite and distant and disappeared as quickly as he could.

He wasn't sure if he was embarrassed by what happened or if he was...

Two weeks ago had seen the first of meet up for the meta human support group Hartley and Barry had put together. The meeting itself had gone well, but a latecomer to the meeting had accidentally used his powers on Hartley, trapping him in a mental loop of sorts that sent him into an insatiable rage. Hartley had damaged both Harrison's house and the main entry to STAR Labs during his short rampage before Barry secured him in the prototype dampening cell. Eventually Caitlin had been able to determine a fix and Cisco built the device to cure Hartley, but the damage had been done.

The human brain wasn't meant to sustain anger for that long and having it cut off so abruptly had dropped Hartley into a mental fog from which he still felt like he was recovering from. He'd left running the second support group meeting entirely to Barry, having taken the whole week off to hide away in his apartment, with Cisco, Caitlin, and Barry as his main visitors. On Monday, though, he'd come back to work. And while he was grateful Harrison understood Hartley hadn't been responsible for his actions and had no inclination to press charges against either Hartley or Roy Bivolo, the meta whose powers had caused the incident in the first place, Hartley had to face the facts that the initial spark of anger had been real.

Hartley was angry with Harrison. Had been angry with him for months, since the accelerator's containment failed and Hartley's world abruptly turned to sound and pain. Since one of his friends died and people outside of STAR Labs had been injured or even killed because of what they'd built. Because of a flaw that Hartley had found, but allowed Harrison to convince him wasn't enough of a concern to warrant postponing the test.

The intense burning rage Hartley remembered from that night still made him feel sick and ashamed. But now all of that bottled up anger had been dragged out of where Hartley had hidden it and he honestly didn't know where to go from here. 

So here he stood, Thursday morning, facing the door to Harrison's office and waffling on the decision to knock on the door. They needed to talk. Or at least... Hartley needed to talk.

Right as Hartley finally reached for the door handle, Harrison opened the door instead.

"Hartley," he greeted with a smile. "Please, come in." Harrison rolled back. "I was about to go looking for you. I was hoping you'd be up for a game of chess; it's been a while since we last played."

"Sure..." Hartley let Harrison lead him over to the chess board and settled down.

"How have you been?" Harrison asked. "I've been worried, since... but I didn't want to push if you weren't ready to talk to me about what happened."

"My mood's been pretty much all over the place. Can't say it's been a productive week for me work wise," Hartley told him.

"You could have taken this week off too. Maybe I should have insisted..." Harrison fished out the game pieces and handed Hartley the white pieces.

"I was going stir crazy. I think Cisco was too; he's been glad to be back in his lab instead of working off his laptop at my place, though at least he's been happy enough to let me work out of his lab instead of my own." Hartley started setting up his pieces. "I don't think I could really handle being alone in my lab right now."

"I've heard a rumor you two were caught kissing in the break room the other day?" Harrison's tone was light, teasing. "I'm glad you two have finally gotten together."

"He's a good kisser," Hartley said with a soft smile. "Though the break room kiss was on the cheek. Not really comfortable with too much PDA at work. Especially since I broke the main entry the other week."

"The worst of it has already been fixed."

"The worst of the cosmetic damage," Hartley corrected quietly, smile falling away. "Other things take longer to fix and some of that damage was already there, under the surface." He moved pawn to e4.

"I gather we're no longer speaking of just last week's... misadventure now." Harrison frowned at the board.

Pawn to e4 was a common opening move for a number of gambits with an equally diverse number of counter moves. Pawn to e5 was the safest move, however, and that was what Harrison chose after a moment's hesitation.

"I'm sorry about your house," Hartley offered.

"It was cleaned up in a flash," Harrison responded with a quirk of his lips. "The glass can be easily replaced and a few cuts and bruises aren't a big deal. I'm just glad you're okay."

"Thank you." Hartley moved a second pawn to f4, deciding to go with a King's Gambit, or one of the variations anyway. Harrison made the expected move, using his pawn at e5 to capture Hartley's pawn at f4. "I was angry at you, after the accelerator failed. I was angry at myself too."

"Because I talked you into going forward with a flawed system."

Hartley nodded. "I should have known better. I should have pushed you harder." Knight to f3.

"And I should have listened. You're a talented and experienced scientist and engineer yourself. Your advice has always been sound and well appreciated." Harrison heaved a sigh. He wasn't really paying attention to the board now as he made a rather standard, predictable move.

Hartley had the sudden realization he'd already won this game. He wasn't quite sure what to make of that; usually, even in a bad mood or distracted state, Harrison paid better attention than this.

"To be honest, I simply wanted it to be over," Harrison admitted. "The closer we came to actually turning on the accelerator, the more I... the accelerator..." He leaned back in his chair with a heavy sigh.

Making another move, Hartley tilted his head to the side, eyes on Harrison. "The more you what? I thought you were excited by the accelerator, by the things we'd learn from turning it on."

"I was. But the accelerator... it wasn't my idea, Hartley. It was Tess' brainchild. The closer we got to turning it on, the more I thought of her. That she should have been there to see... her brilliance and legacy. And I screwed up at the finish line. She would have listened to your concerns and postponed the turn on date until she was absolutely certain it was safe." Harrison looked away. "I treated it like a penance that I was eager to be done with."

"You know... I don't think I've ever really heard you talk about her." Hartley had certainly been curious about Tess Morgan, but he'd never been inclined to push for details. Harrison had grown more closed off when the topic of his dead fiance was raised and Hartley hadn't been inclined to push his friend on a painful subject just to satisfy his own curiosity.

"Maybe I should have spoken about her to you. The two of you would have gotten along very well, I suspect." Harrison was watching him again.

"Why would completing the accelerator be a penance?" Hartley asked, his decision to mirror Harrison's wording as much a deliberate move as the ones he was making on the chess board.

"Because her death was my fault. I was driving that night. I was the one who swerved the car and overturned the vehicle. She died on impact." There was something odd about the way Harrison spoke that confession of guilt. _I was driving that night._ His tone was off compared to the words that preceded them. The cadence was... weird.

"Going forward with the accelerator was a decision made as much for my love of pure science as it was to be... a sign of my continued devotion to her. Instead, I made a mess of everything. Her legacy and mine... and it was my friends who paid the price this time."

"Ronnie most of all," Hartley responded, not wanting to let his sympathy for Harrison make him repress his anger with the man all over again.

"And Caitlin," Harrison acknowledged.

"We're not okay," Hartley told him simply. "I didn't deal with my anger when I should have and now it's out in the open again. And there's nothing you can say or do that can magically make this better, Harrison. I need time. And space. To figure myself out and heal. I'm not going anywhere but..."

"You need me to stay out of your way until you're ready for us to be friends again?" Harrison filled in.

"We're still friends, Harrison. We're just not okay right now, that's all." They played a few more moves on the board in silence.

"I'm afraid my head really isn't in the game," Harrison admitted after a moment. "Perhaps the next time we play, I'll be able to offer more of a challenge."

Hartley smiled. "No doubt. But how about you let me finish winning this one, okay?"

Harrison chuckled. "Very well."

There was still something very strange about the way Harrison spoke of Tess Morgan but... it was probably just his grief surfacing. That was all. 

Surely that was all.

* * *

Eddie smiled encouragingly - or at least he hoped it came off that way - as the woman made her report. Clarissa Stein had noticed a man following her recently and he'd nearly broken into her house that morning. And now Eddie was getting to play sketch artist for her since their actual sketch artist was out with the flu.

"So, does this like your guy?" he asked, leaning out of the way so that Mrs. Stein could get a better look.

She nodded. "Yes, that's a good likeness of him. You know... there's still... he said something that stuck with me. Something only Martin would have known."

"Martin... he's your husband, right?"

"That's right. He went missing the night the accelerator exploded at STAR Labs." She paused a beat. "I haven't had him declared dead because I truly believe I'd feel it if he were dead. And what this man said... I think he knows where Martin is." Clarissa's expression turned pensive. "The man who appeared at my house... he seemed very unwell, detective. If you can find him... if he can help lead us to my husband, then I don't want to press charges for what happened this morning. I just want my husband to come home."

"What did he say to make you believe he knows where your husband is?" Eddie asked.

"Our first date was a disaster. Drive in theater had closed due to unexpected rainfall and then... his car broke down and we had to walk back into town in the rain. We were miserable and I was thinking that I'd be glad never to think of this date again when he started... humming at first and then singing and by the time we were closing in a payphone he could use to call a tow truck, we were both singing and laughing and dancing around." Clarissa wiped at her eyes. "I asked him for another date while we were waiting for the tow truck to arrive. And he talked about the day Lily was born. Just things a stranger wouldn't know, but Martin would."

"I'll go pull the case file on your husband and see what I can find," Eddie promised. He couldn't promise to find her husband, but... he could promise to do his best.

"Thank you, Detective. Please... if you find anything, even its not something I want to hear... please let me know."

Eddie nodded and walked her to the elevators, handing her his card when they got there. "If the man who tried to break in shows up again, this has my cell number on it. If he shows up again..."

"I'll give you a call."

"Do you have anyone in town you can stay with?"

"My daughter has housing near campus. She's a professor there, like her father. I can go stay with her." Clarissa shook Eddie's hand. "Thank you, Detective." Once she was in the elevator on the way down, Eddie headed back to the bullpen. By now the disappearance of Martin Stein would have been marked a cold case, he'd need to look up the file on the case and any evidence that might have been found.

"Hey, Eddie," Joe said, dropping by his desk after coming out of the Captain's office. "I'm headed out to check on an old crime scene for a cold case."

"You want me to come along?"

"If you're not busy. I was gonna grab Desmond and see if he could help me dig up some new evidence, but it's not really a two detective job." Joe had a very determined expression on his face and Eddie had to wonder which cold case he was looking into. 

"I actually just got a possible lead on a missing persons case that went cold. I was about to look the case file." Eddie logged onto his computer. "Dr. Martin Stein, went missing the night of the accelerator incident."

"Detective Jones had that case, if I'm remembering right. He was one of the transfers after the Captain retired." Transfers that, according to Barry, were taken by cops who weren't necessarily dirty but knew they wouldn't be able to hack it in a precinct run by their new Captain Singh, who wasn't the sort to tolerate bad behavior from anyone in his precinct. Lovely. Hopefully Eddie wouldn't need to consult with Detective Jones, wherever he'd ended up. 

"Thanks." At least with the investigating detective's name along with Martin Stein's name it was easy to cross reference the two to pull up the digital records on the case file. And it was just a file, no evidence. Eddie waved goodbye to Joe before heading to the records room to pull the file.

The file itself was pretty sparse. Interviews with Clarissa Stein and Lily Stein, the basic paperwork for a missing person, and a note that the investigating officer had gone down to STAR Labs to check out the area. Apparently that was the last place Martin Stein had been seen. A few people had remembered seeing him in the crowd, but no sign of him afterwards. Detective Jones had speculated that Professor Stein had run away to some exotic local.

This was not a case where anything remotely like due diligence had been done. Eddie wanted to change that.

* * *

Joe would have preferred to be doing this with Barry. But considering which case he was reopening... that was precisely why Barry couldn't be the one to come with him.

So when Eddie wandered off with a distracted farewell to investigate the missing person's case he'd apparently stumbled on to, Joe headed upstairs to Desmond's lab. "Hey," he knocked at the open door to get the scientist's attention.

"Dt. West. What can I do for you?" Desmond asked, looking up with a smile.

"I reopened a cold case the other week and I can't say I'm too impressed with the evidence collected by the original investigators. It's a fifteen-year-old case so the crime scene probably doesn't have much in the way of evidence left, but... I was hoping you'd come out and take a look at it with me anyway." With any luck, after the week they'd been having, Julian would want to get out of the office. Joe was keeping his fingers crossed, metaphorically anyway. If he had to ask one of the other CSIs... then this investigation might get back to Barry before Joe was ready to tell him anything.

"Sure, let me grab my kit. I just spent the last hour being re-interviewed by Donelli and Peterson. I need some time outside." Pushing away from his desk, Julian stretched and stood.

Joe, however, frowned. "Why'd IA want to re-interview you?"

"Because last night I remembered that Zolomon used to date Amelia Garret." Julian opened the backpack he kept his kit in and checked something before zipping it shut and following Joe out the door.

"The woman who went missing while she was supposed to be babysitting her nephews?" Joe clarified.

"That's the one. Disappeared at a park in March." Desmond grimaced, "and as proof that no good deed goes unpunished, telling Donelli and Peterson that I'd remembered Amelia's last name lost me yet another hour's work. Still, if it turns out he did have something to do with her disappearance..." Julian huffed softly. "Last week I wouldn't have thought he'd falsify evidence and now I'm wondering if he's a kidnapper or murderer." Julian shook his head. "So what's this case we're looking into?"

"The Nora Allen murder."

Julian froze. "Barry's mum."

"That's right."

"What makes you think now, after all these years, that his father might be innocent?" Desmond was probably the best CSI they had after Barry. But Joe still wasn't sure what to make of the other man.

"Because fifteen years ago, Henry and Barry both described an intruder in their house. A man in the lightning. It couldn't have been the Flash, but..."

"If someone can have powers like that now," Julian filled in, "what about fifteen years ago?"

* * *

"Allen." Donelli's voice was terse, which was fairly par for the course with him. He'd been one of Barry's IA contacts while gathering evidence against the Captain whom David Singh had taken over for.

While their initial interactions hadn't been great - Donelli had been an ass to Barry during the Dibny investigation - the IA detective had proved to be quite dedicated to keeping other cops on the straight and narrow. While he considered Henry Allen to be Barry's blind spot, Donelli had conceded afterwards that Barry was as dedicated, if not more so, to rooting out corrupt cops as he was. It was why, after the fallout from Dibny being fired settled, Donelli had contacted Barry to keep an eye on other signs of corruption at the precinct. Nothing he'd seen was actionable, but there was enough to make him suspicious and Barry, stuck in the middle of it all, had readily agreed.

Peterson was new, though. He'd joined the IA department while Barry was on medical leave, so Barry wasn't quite sure what to make of him yet.

"Donelli, Peterson," Barry greeted, checking the results he was running for a suspicious powder found at the scene of a robbery. "What can I do for you two today?"

"We need you to rerun all the evidence in the Amelia Garret case. Apparently she was Zolomon's ex and he didn't disclose that information. So when she went missing, he was the CSI assigned to the case." Peterson held out an evidence box they'd clearly pulled out of storage.

Barry took it, signed for it, and then broke the seal so he could verify the contents. "If he was involved in her disappearance, rerunning the evidence may not help. Not if he contaminated it. I'd like to go back to the scene and re-examine it myself." There wasn't a whole lot in the box, but there was a folder of crime scene photographs which Barry immediately snapped up.

"Yeah okay. I'll drive you out after lunch if you'll wait." Donelli said, clearly aware Barry didn't drive himself. And, thankfully, unaware of Barry's powers.

"There's a sandwich shop I usually go to on Fridays," Barry told them. "You two want to join me?"

"Yeah, Allen," Donelli agreed, elbowing Peterson who just shrugged and rolled his eyes. "Sandwiches sound great. And I suppose you're going to want details on the case?"

"I remember hearing about Garret's disappearance on TV, but I was still on medical leave at the time and I can't say I was paying a lot of attention." Barry set the report for the robery aside on his desk and tagged it with a sticky note so he'd remember to send it on to the detective attached to the case once the follow up test was completed that afternoon. Then he grabbed his kit, wallet, phone, and keys, locking up his lab when they left the room.

"So what's this I heard about you getting spied on?" Donelli asked as Barry finished locking up.

"Someone put cameras everywhere. My apartment, Joe's place, here..." Barry shook his head. "And no sign of who or why. Honestly, my guess is that it's got something to do with the study I signed up for at STAR Labs."

"What, all meta human malarky?" Peterson asked.

"Oh, come on, there's something to it. That tornado through downtown, the Flash," Donelli grinned. "I actually saw him when he brought in Nimbus."

Peterson rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well I'll wait until I see it for myself."

"So got any powers to speak of?" Donelli asked. Barry just laughed.

* * *

Mick shoved his hands in his pockets and gave Len a skeptical look. "What are we doing here, Len? Doubt your parole officer'd like it if he found out you were visiting this guy."

"And who's going to tell her?"

"Her?"

"Her."

Mick smirked. "She hot? Got a thing for firemen? Never mind, don't tell me. Pig's still a pig." He sounded wistful though and Len gave Mick a judgmental look anyway. His parole officer wasn't bad for a cop, but Len still thought she was kind of a bitch, a sentiment Lisa - and, surprisingly, even Barry - shared. "Seriously, Snart. What are we doing here?"

Len pulled a camera out of his pocket. A small wifi camera. "I need a hacker to trace what was receiving the signal from this camera. Because the cops have failed. Kuttler is one of the best and he's in town this month, as fortune would have it."

"Len..." Mick sighed and scratched the back of his neck. "Does Red know you're looking into this?"

"No."

"Will he get pissed off when he inevitably finds out about this?"

"Probably."

Another loud, put-upon sigh. "Let's get this over with."

Len smirked and walked up the stoop to knock on the door. The door opened and they were ushered inside. It wasn't the first time Len had dealings with Noah Kuttler. Nicknamed The Calculator, a moniker that Len found ostentatious... while at the same time a little envious that he'd never had the occasion to earn a ridiculous nickname of his own before choosing to get out of the criminal business. Kuttler hadn't much liked Len because he was Lewis Snart's son, but Len was hoping he'd be a little more cooperative this time around what with Lewis being dead now.

"What brings you gentlemen to my doorstep?" Kuttler asked, watching them with a cautious curiosity. "I heard you were both out of the game these days. Fire starter turned fireman," he nodded to Mick, "and you're shacked up with a CSI who walks the straight and narrow in every way except his sexuality."

Mick snorted in amusement. Len rolled his eyes and held out the camera. 

"Someone's been spying on my boyfriend, my sister, and me. Cop's tech guys found shit. I was hoping you could do better." Len let Kuttler snatch away the piece of hardware without complaint.

Turning the camera around and peering at it this way and that, he rattled off a list of specs that meant nothing to Len. He assumed, given the hacker's impressed tone, that the camera was high end and expensive.

"I can track down where they were watching from," Kuttler finally confirmed, which was all Len cared about. "And I'll do it at a discount, even."

"Why so generous?" Mick demanded, immediately suspicious. 

"I owed Lewis Snart a favor that I was not looking forward to having get cached in," Kuttler responded. "But then Lewis dies in a shoot out with cops? I'd owe the man who arranged that sort of... accident a great debt. As for Lewis Snart's son... well, I'd rather repay his debt to you than to your father." He rattled off a price that Len immediately countered. Haggling was expected, regardless of the 'discount' and there was a trace of glee in Kuttler's eyes as they quickly arrived at a reasonably discounted price.

"Come back tomorrow morning with the cash and I'll have both an IP address and physical address for you to investigate."

Len thanked him and left the building with Mick on his heels. Once outside, Mick grabbed his arms and stared at Len with narrowed eyes.

"What?"

"I've avoided asking you what down with your old man, Len. But I think it's time you told me what happened. How, exactly, did Lewis Snart die?"

Len swallowed hard, closing his eyes for a moment, remembering that moment... "I have to get to work. But tonight. Saints and Sinners."

"You're buying every round. Barry'll just have to watch chick flicks with Lisa while we're out."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had fun adding Kuttler, though he's making assumptions about Len's past that aren't necessarily true. Mick's pretty sure he knows what really happened, but Len never talks about it so he's pushing now out of concern.


	2. Chapter 2

The convenient bit of investigating a missing person who'd vanished the night of the accelerator incident and was last seen in front of STAR Labs... was that they already had all the CCTV footage from STAR Labs available as digital evidence on the CCPD servers. 

Eddie sketched out a tiny STAR Labs - really more like a donut - and then added little V shapes to approximate both the cameras and the direction they were pointed, then used the barely detailed witness statements to determine approximately which cameras were most likely to have caught sight of Stein throughout the evening. The first ones he looked at were the ones outside the main entrance to STAR Labs. Eddie caught sight of Barry and Iris on one, watching as the two suddenly took off running after a man who'd stolen Iris' backpack.

The night he'd first met Iris and Barry. It made Eddie smile a little. Despite the awfulness that had followed, this was still the evening Eddie had met the love of his life and the man who was now one of his best friends. The silver lining, as it were. But Eddie already knew how Barry and Iris' story went. He needed to keep looking.

A short while later, Eddie finally spotted Martin Stein in the crowd, carrying some kind of case.

After the press conference ended, Martin moved to a different camera and Eddie followed Stein with some difficulty as he navigated past the protesters to stand near the stairs. Set down his case and glanced at his phone impatiently. Like he was waiting for a call or a text...

Eddie checked the folder. No phone records; he'd have to make a request for Stein's phone records for twenty-four hours before and after the night of the incident. He jotted down a note to remember to do so later and then returned to the video. Counted down in his head to the moment when everything went wrong. And then watched as chaos broke out. Protesters and onlookers alike screaming and running away in fear. Eddie remembered being able to see the plumes of fire and smoke exploding upwards from the building all the way from the windows of the CCPD bullpen.

It had been mere moments later that the lightning bolt had struck Barry.

But on the video, Martin Stein didn't run away. He steadied himself against the building, picking up his case again, and then he looked up as what looked like flames streamed down towards him. The flames enveloped him and then... there was a different man standing there. No case present. Different clothes. The camera didn't catch his face as he ran away in a direction no other camera would have picked him up.

"What the hell?" Eddie muttered, clicking back to right before the flames showed up. And then, frame by frame, he clicked forward. And when the flames arrived, it wasn't really fire though it was certainly some kind of plasma... and it was shaped like a man. Like the man Eddie had sketched for Clarissa Stein.

* * *

Hartley and Cisco headed towards the main entry to meet with Dt. Thawne when he arrived. Harrison did a rush job on repairing the main entry, but it still wasn't fully repaired and Hartley cringed to see the empty wall where there used to be group photos from various team events they'd done over the years. Hartley had pretty much wrecked it under Roy's influence. Most of the photographs could be salvaged or replaced, but the frames were a total loss and still required replacing, amongst other things.

"You okay?" Cisco asked, linking their hands together. 

"Yeah, fine..." Hartley wrinkled his nose. "Or maybe not so much? I finally went to talk to Harrison this morning. We played chess."

"So that's where you disappeared to," Cisco mused. "How'd the conversation go?"

"Awkwardly." 

The far door opened at that moment and Detective Thawne walked into STAR Labs. "Thanks for meeting with me," he said, shaking their hands after a quick introduction. "I've heard a lot about you two from Barry, so its nice to finally put some faces to the names."

"It's good to meet you too," Hartley replied. "So you said you have case that might involve a meta human?"

"That's right. Is there, um... somewhere we can sit and look over some video footage?" Eddie glanced around. "Did something happen here?"

"Redecorating," Cisco answered dryly. "There are some visitor conference rooms this way. We can set up in one of those."

"I'll grab a laptop and join you in... the Apricot room?" Hartley offered. Apricot being one of the smaller conference rooms.

Cisco nodded and led the detective away while Hartley headed back to Cisco's lab where Hartley'd left his laptop. Caitlin was waiting for him in there, however.

"Hey Hartley, I was looking for Cisco."

Picking up his laptop, Hartley told her, "I'm meeting him in the Apricot room. Detective Thawne asked for our help on a case of his that apparently involves a meta human. Do you want to come with?"

She nodded. "Sure."

"So, um..." as they headed towards the elevator, Hartley tapped his fingers nervously along the edge of his laptop. "Caitlin..."

"You've been avoiding me outside of checkups," she said, expression turning very kind. "I don't blame you. I hope you know that, Hartley."

"I shouldn't have kept what I'd found quiet."

Caitlin touched his shoulder and shook her head. "True. But Dr. Wells should have taken your concerns more seriously. I still think I'd have done the same as you. To be honest... I'm not sure I can trust him the same way anymore."

The elevator binged and the doors opened. They got inside and Hartley leaned against the far wall while Caitlin pressed the button for the main floor.

"I finally talked to Harrison this morning. Told him we're still friends, but not okay. I've been pretending to be okay because I didn't want to rock the boat and did such a good job I even fooled myself. But with the cat out of the bag..." 

Caitlin sighed. "I'm not sure how I feel about any of this. Except that... I'm missing Ronnie all over again."

They took the back way to the visitor conference rooms so that Hartley could avoid the main entry this time and they joined Cisco and Eddie in the conference room.

"Detective Thawne, this is Dr. Caitlin Snow," Hartley introduced, setting up his laptop while the two politely shook hands.

"The case I'm looking into is a missing person who was last seen just outside of STAR Labs on the night the accelerator. Dr. Martin Stein... I don't suppose any of you have heard of him?"

"I have," Hartley said. "I took a few of his classes while I was an undergrad. Would have loved to have had him as my thesis advisor after completing my Masters but he wasn't taking new PhD students on at the time."

"Your science fanboy is showing," Cisco teased with an easy grin. 

"You'd fanboy too if you'd taken his classes," Hartley retorted. "But what was he doing here that night?"

"According to Clarissa Stein, he was here to meet with Dr. Wells to discuss the possibility of using the data collected from the accelerator in one of his ongoing projects. But she didn't know which one. While I'd like to ask Dr. Wells if he knows more, what I'd really like for to get your opinions on something from your CCTV cameras that night." Eddie took Hartley's place in front of the laptop and plugged in a USB. He then used that to VPN into the CCPD and login to the network with his credentials to pull up the camera in question.

He played the recording at normal speed right up until the not-quite-fire appeared on screen before slowing it down to frame by frame.

"Oh my god," Caitlin's voice shook as she spoke. "It's Ronnie."

* * *

Julian snickered as Joe politely shooed away the very flirty home owner.

"You know, if you want to get her number I can wait here," he teased, smirking when Detective West glowered at him. "What are we looking for?"

"I'm not sure," the detective admitted. "I haven't been back here since the night Nora died. I wasn't allowed near the case at the time since it was a conflict of interest."

"You were friends with the family?" Julian asked.

"Yeah. Barry and Iris were friends at school. Henry and Nora became good friends of mine. I'd let them watch Iris when I had late nights. I took it pretty hard when I thought Henry had..." Joe trailed off and shook his head. "Fifteen years of believing him guilty of murdering his wife. I don't even know where to begin apologizing."

"You're that certain Henry Allen is innocent now?" Julian asked, even as he pulled out crime scene sketches and photographs to compare to the house's current appearance. "That mirror looks like it was here when the Allen's owned the house," he added, gesturing to an antique in the corner.

"Sherry probably bought it at the estate sale. And, yeah. I'm that certain. After reviewing the way he described the lightning in the house during his interview... you haven't seen the Flash yet, have you?" West had a faraway look on his face, probably a little lost in the past.

"Not exactly. I've seen him from the second floor landing a couple of times when he's brought in a meta to leave in the cells with the power dampeners. Just a blur lightning." Julian hadn't thought he would, but he rather liked Barry Allen. He was thoughtful and kind, if a bit overly friendly for Julian's usual preferences in coworkers. They hadn't worked together before Allen's lightning related medical problems the year before, but they'd worked a few crime scenes together since then and Julian had come to appreciate Allen's impressive eye for details.

Julian had also figured out that Barry was the Flash. He had to wonder how Allen felt about his powers, knowing there was a possibility the man who'd murdered his mother shared them. And that begged the question of who the real target that night had been. Because it was too much of a coincidence, in Julian's opinion, if Nora Allen really was killed by a speedster and her son developed those same abilities in his twenties.

But Julian rather doubted West would appreciate hearing that Julian had figured out Barry's secret identity. So he kept that part to himself.

"What Henry, and Barry, described seeing that night sounds a whole hell of a lot like how I'd describe the Flash," Joe observed. "So, yeah. I believe Henry's innocent now."

"Given that speedsters were previously unknown and Henry Allen's fingerprints were the only ones on the murder weapon, it's understandable why he was convicted," Julian moved to stand in the middle of the room where Nora's murder occurred, standing approximately where her body would have been, and carefully turning around as he flicked through the photographs. "At the same time, a doctor would know that with knife wounds the worst thing you can do is pull out the knife. Better to stabilize the knife so it won't do further damage, which is why he'd have grabbed the knife after she was stabbed to try and hold it steady." Julian frowned at one of the pictures, holding it up to compare to the wall in front of him. "The wallpaper wasn't here when the Allens owned the house. It looks like there were several blood splatters on that wall. Did anyone take samples?"

"No. The investigating officers thought it was an open and shut case; minimal evidence was collected and it was assumed that any blood found was Nora's."

Sloppy work, in Julian's opinion. "If there's new evidence to be found, then it's behind the wall paper. We'll want the owner's permission to peel it off. And... blood this old is probably too degraded to be of use." Julian headed over to the antique mirror to fulfill his curiosity about it. "The backing is silver nitrate. Same thing used to be used in old photography. With all the lightning in the room, it's possible there might be images layered within the mirror itself, but you'd need some very specialized equipment to retrieve even a single blurry, overexposed image."

"Worth looking into, at least," Joe muttered. "I'll go ask Sherry about the wallpaper."

Julian waved him off, heading back to the center of the room. After fifteen years, there really just wasn't anything left for him evidence wise. The floors were the same, but had clearly been sanded and re-stained. Any blood that might have soaked into the floor beneath Nora Allen would've been sanded away and any boards that couldn't be adequately sanded were replaced. Not that collecting Nora's blood would do them any good. No, their only hope of new blood evidence lay behind the truly atrocious wallpaper and after fifteen years it'd be too degraded by time and whatever glue was used to adhere the paper to the wall to be of use. He'd try anyway; Julian hated the idea of leaving a potentially innocent man in jail without even trying to find evidence of his innocence, but... the outlook was not good.

"Oh, sure," Sherry followed Joe back into the room. "I mean... it's kind of tacky wallpaper anyway. I've been meaning to tear it down and have the walls textured and painted for years. This just gives me incentive to finally do it." She batted her eyes at Joe. "If this helps catch the murderer, you'll let me know won't you?"

"I really appreciate your cooperation," Joe told her, shifting uncomfortably and making no promises.

Julian hid a smile as he went to rip the paper off the wall.

* * *

Dr. Wells reviewed the footage a second time, his expression inscrutable.

Cisco resisted the urge to tap his fingers impatiently, instead reaching out to hold Hartley's hand. The other man latched on immediately, rubbing his thumb lightly over the back of Cisco's hand soothingly. Detective Thawne and Caitlin both looked about as impatient as Cisco felt, which helped settle him somewhat too. At least he wasn't the only one who wanted Dr. Wells to hurry up and react already.

"That's truly amazing," he finally said. "Ronnie must've had his abilities as a meta kick in moments before the explosion reached him, converting him to energy himself. But while that would have saved him from being destroyed, the energy from the accelerator would have overwhelmed him. I can only assume that he was either drawn to whatever was in Professor Stein's case or to Stein himself... assuming that Stein possessed a compatible meta ability himself and wasn't simply... altered by the interaction between Ronnie's energy and what was within that case."

"Were you aware that Professor Stein intended to meet with you that evening to discuss the accelerator demonstration?" Thawne asked.

Dr. Wells nodded. "I was supposed to meet with him after the test run was completed. But considering I ended that night in the hospital myself, obviously I never contacted him that evening. With everything else I was dealing with at the time, I honestly forgot all about his interest in applying the data from the accelerator to his FIRESTORM project."

"FIRESTORM?" Thawne echoed.

"All he'd say was that it was a government funded project he was working on. Stein wasn't willing to discuss it further over the phone and I assumed it was classified." He paused a moment before adding, "I'm surprised that this is the first time I'm hearing from the police over his disappearance, though."

"New information in his disappearance came to light," Thawne responded tightly and, honestly, Cisco had to wonder if the previous investigator just hadn't cared enough to look deeply into the case. "Do you believe both Mr. Raymond and Professor Stein are still alive in their shared body or are they some different person entirely made of a combination of the two?"

"I suspect that their minds may still be separate, but... without access to the FIRESTORM documents I can't be sure. I have some military contacts who may be willing to declassify this for me. If there's a way to separate them back into their original selves," he turned to look at Caitlin now, "I promise I will find it."

"Can you get us in touch with Mrs. Stein?" Caitlin asked. "She should be involved in any decisions we make regarding her husband's welfare."

Eddie nodded and made plans to bring Caitlin with him to meet Clarissa Stein. Dr. Wells headed towards his office, presumably to make phone calls to the contacts he'd mentioned. And Hartley stared after Wells with an odd frown on his face.

Cisco pulled Hartley aside. "Something up with you and Dr. Wells?"

"No?" Hartley scrunched up his nose and sighed, shaking his head. "I don't know. The way he reacted was just... weird. I'm probably reading too much into it, that's all."

"You know him better than the rest of us do. And, honestly, I thought he was acting weird too." Cisco shrugged, "I just... kind of figured this is how he reacts to feeling guilty about what happened to Ronnie and now... now we've got a second chance to save him."

Certainly Cisco felt wonky about the whole situation. Like he'd been bowled over or...

Like he was getting a second chance to get things right. To not close the door on his best friend...

"Hey." Hartley cupped Cisco's face and gently brushed away Cisco's tears. "We're gonna bring him home this time. I promise."

Cisco wanted to believe him. But he'd already failed Ronnie once before. What if he screwed this up again?

* * *

Caitlin felt numb as she sat in Detective Thawne's car. Ronnie was alive.

That was the thought that kept looping in her brain. Ronnie was alive. Ronnie was alive. Ronnie...

Was Ronnie the one who'd been watching her in the parking lot?

"Are you sure you're okay to see Mrs. Stein?" Eddie asked as he pulled up in front of a single story house in the suburbs. "It's just... I can't even imagine what you're going through. If it were Iris..."

"Iris? Oh... right, Barry's sister," Caitlin scrubbed a hand across her face, knowing she must seem very distracted.

"He's mentioned me?" Eddie sounded pleased.

Caitlin nodded. "Yeah, Barry's mentioned you and Iris. Honestly, I'm the best person to explain to Mrs. Stein what's going on because I'm the only one who truly understands what she'll be going through once she knows. We're in the same boat."

"Which is why I'm really glad you agreed to come with me to see her. But... I just want to be sure you're okay to do this." Eddie's expression was concerned but not... he wasn't trying to be condescending or patronizing. He just didn't want to help Clarissa Stein at Caitlin's expense.

"I'm okay to do this," she promised and then unbuckled her seat belt so that she could get out of her car.

Eddie came around to join her and together they walked up to the front porch. Eddie knocked and a young woman opened the door. "Detective Thawne?" she asked tentatively.

"That's right. And this is Dr. Snow. You're... Lily, right? Clarissa was expecting us."

Lily nodded and stepped aside. "Please, come on in." She brought them to the living room right as an older woman, presumably Clarissa, came out of the hallway to join them.

"I'm rather impressed you've made progress already, Detective Thawne," she greeted. "Dr. Snow, it's good to make your acquaintance, though I wish it were under better circumstances."

Caitlin shook Clarissa's hand, feeling rather strained. She wished she weren't so alone in all of this, but the one person whose support she wanted most dearly was... inaccessible.

Eddie requested the use of a laptop and, as he had at STAR Labs, he showed the clip from the STAR Labs CCTV footage. And then it was Caitlin's turn.

"My boyfriend, Ronnie. He was... he was in the accelerator pipeline when the explosion happened, diverting the power so that it would be expelled upward instead of taking out the building and the surrounding blocks. But he had to seal himself in to do it and, until I saw that footage earlier today, I believed he was dead. We all... we all thought Ronnie was dead." Caitlin's voice choked for a moment and Clarissa took her hand.

"Your young man is the one in the fire that merged with Martin, isn't he?" Clarissa asked gently.

Caitlin nodded. "Dr. Wells thinks it may be possible to split Ronnie and Martin back into their separate selves, but he needs more information on what your husband brought with him to STAR Labs that night. He's looking to get access to the FIRESTORM research that was done so far, but... these are essentially medical decisions that have to be made. I can speak for Ronnie."

"And you need me to speak for Martin."

Caitlin nodded. Clarissa squeezed her hand lightly again and Caitlin squeezed back. Somehow... somehow this was exactly what Caitlin had needed.

* * *

The park Amelia Garret had vanished from was a fairly popular location year round and today was certainly no exception. There were kids who'd come straight here from school, college students studying in the sunshine, adults walking the trails... it was packed today and it would have been equally packed that March.

Yet, somehow, no one noticed Amelia Garret go missing.

"According to reports, the last place Garret was seen was on this bench," Peterson said, gesturing to a wooden bench near a swing-set. "Her nephews are nine and twelve years of age respectively and they were supposed to stay within this playground area. Neither are quite sure when she was taken, as initially the elder of the two had assumed she'd gone to the bathroom when he first noticed her missing. When she never came back, kid called her cell phone and then his parents."

Barry nodded. "Let me guess, the assumption is that she must have known her attacker and was lured to a less busy part of the park. Somewhere it'd be less obvious if she kicked up a fuss."

"That's right," Donelli agreed. "Her purse was found back this way." He led the way across one of the paved walking trails and back into the trees.

Making a mental note to go over the contents of Amelia's purse carefully, Barry knelt down by the tree indicated and pulled out the crime scene photos, trying to get a feel for what had changed since then. He stood up slowly, then frowned. There was a picture in there of a white cloth, but no such cloth was logged in evidence. "I think we've got our first evidence of tampering. There's a photo here of a cloth but that wasn't evidence box when I looked it over earlier." 

Donelli came and peered over Barry's shoulder. "Bet that was covered in chloroform and the perp's DNA."

"Well it's gone now, so we'll have to figure out if it went missing during the initial investigation or afterwards. At least then we'll know if the detectives who initially had the case were dirty or inept enough to let a major piece of evidence slip through their fingers," Peterson grumbled.

"Okay, well, going based on the photos here, it looks like they did miss something." Barry held out one photos. "So it looks like they were taking a picture of what appeared to be blood on this limb over here. The blood evidence was in the box when I checked it over earlier. But the photo shows something else rather interesting."

"Drag marks," Donelli said after a moment of peering at the photo. "Someone tried to cover those marks, but those two indentations in the ground have gotta be from him dragging her off."

Barry nodded. "My thoughts exactly. The marks in photo seem to be heading deeper into the forested area, so how about we take a little hike to see if there's anything new?"

The detectives nodded and Barry stuck the folder of crime scene folders back into his kit before taking off in the direction the marks had followed in the photograph. The drag marks were gone now, after a summer with decent rainfall and likely plenty of foot traffic in this area. The ground sloped gently downwards, which would've made dragging Amelia along easier. Path of least resistance.

The trees cleared up abruptly to reveal a small clearing around a dry creek bed. It probably filled with rain whenever there was a storm, though. The initial investigators had likely made it over here during their sweep of the area and found nothing at the time. That was not the case now, however.

There was a mound of dirt disturbed by recent rain and a slender hand could be seen sticking out of one side.

"There's no way they missed that in March," Peterson muttered.

Barry swallowed hard, steeled himself, and then approached the hand. "Garret was... five-four, right?"

"That's right. Why?"

"I don't think this is her. Hand span is too long; I'd guess she's about five-seven or eight. And buried fairly recently. It rained on Wednesday night which is probably what uncovered her arm." Barry returned to the detectives and started opening his kit. "Who's gonna call it in?" he asked, pulling out his camera.

"I will. You two start getting this documented," Donelli said, pulling out his phone and stalking back up towards the playground.

"No way this isn't connected to Garret's disappearance," Peterson muttered. Barry was inclined to agree.

* * *

Len joined Mick at a booth at the back of Saints and Sinners after work that evening, as promised. Ordered a burger and beer and wondered what was going through his friend's head.

"When your dad dragged you into that last job, you didn't call me," Mick finally said. 

"You had a shot at becoming a fireman. I wasn't going to let you risk that for me." Len toyed with his beer bottle.

"Wasn't your call. But we've had this argument a few times already. Len. What haven't you told me about that job." Mick wasn't going to let this go.

"He had Lisa. He didn't just threaten her, he had her. Locked her up in his basement and I couldn't get near her. He swore he'd let her go after the job was done, but I didn't believe him." Len snorted softly and took a drink. He'd have been a fool to believe Lewis Snart. "I called in a tip to the cops. The job went south because of me."

Mick blew out a sharp breath and nodded. "Makes sense." He took a bite of his burger. "What else?"

"We separated when the sirens got too close and I heard gunshots. I should have kept running but I didn't." Len let out a shuddering breath. "He was dead. Cop was wounded, my dad was dead. So I let myself get arrested and I had to beg the cops to go release Lisa from that basement. If you were expecting some dramatic story where I shot Lewis and made it look like a cop did it..." he shook his head. "I wish it had played out that way, Mick. I got a deal for pleading out on previous crimes and got no time for that job due to Lewis coercing me. Wouldn't have gotten parole so soon if they hadn't."

"But you blame yourself for his death," Mick guessed.

"I called in the tip. I brought the cops down on us. He was an abusive son of bitch, so why..." before that moment, seeing his father dead on the ground, Len had wanted to kill Lewis himself. Wanted to put a bullet through the man's head. But he never did. And once Lewis was dead... there went Len's chance.

But it was worse because... that was his father, dead on the ground. Lisa never got to meet the version of Lewis that Len still had vague memories of. The man who'd taken him to the park and held Len when he cried at his mom's funeral. Len's actions hadn't just killed the monster that Lewis had become, but the father he'd been before the failed theft put him in jail for the first time. 

It wasn't a rational feeling. The good parent had died long before that day. But Lewis' death meant... there really was never any going back. 

"Kuttler pretty clearly thinks you killed Lewis yourself," Mick finally said.

"He's not the only one. And considering dear old dad had more enemies than friends, letting people think I got away with murder was safer than the truth." The misconception had served Len well in prison, earning him protection from those who considered Lewis' death as the ending of a particularly annoying problem. They'd seen Len as the one who'd done them a favor by making that problem go away. But they might've looked at him differently if they'd known the truth. And if it got him a better discount in hiring a talent like Kuttler now?

"Where'd you get the camera?" Mick asked, letting the subject of Lewis' death drop.

"The inspection team missed it in the second floor guest bathroom at West's place. Camera wasn't running anymore - battery died. So it wouldn't have triggered their equipment. They should have double checked everything anyway, but..." Len shrugged. "I was over there for dinner on the weekend, remember?"

Mick raised an eyebrow but let the subject drop. "You know the crew I work with that does home remodels is looking for a new electrician." While Mick was a firefighter first and foremost, he and a few others had started up a home remodeling business. They built custom cabinetry and worked with a couple of different subcontractors for most of the other work. He seemed happy enough with the work, though Mick had some hobby he'd been bashfully hiding from Len.

"I never got my license." That'd been his plan though, before Lewis showed up to ruin things like always. "I never even started the vocational training."

"Our electrician is looking to take on an apprentice. You could take classes at night, work with him during the day..." Mick shrugged, "if not that, one our cabinet makers is quitting though that'd put you in with me all the time. Think you'd be happier with the electrical."

Len snorted in amusement. Mick had tried to convince him to work with his building crew right after Len'd gotten out. It was texturing and painting walls that time. Len hadn't been pleased with what he'd seen as Mick taking pity on him and turned him down. And it probably was pity the first time around. But this time?

This time it just felt like Mick wanted to spend more time with Len.

"I'll think about it," Len promised.

Mick wrote a down a name and number on a napkin and slid it over to Len. "Julio's contact info, if you want to discuss training as an electrician."

"Want another beer? I'm paying, remember?" Len folded the napkin away in one of his pockets. 

* * *

Caitlin's heels clicked on the pavement as she headed towards her car. She'd stayed with the Steins after Eddie left to work on tracking down Ronnie and Martin Stein's whereabouts. Caitlin usually had a hard time clicking with other women - residual issues with her mother and the fact that most of her peers through school and in the work force were men - but she'd hit it off with Clarissa and Lily.

The benefits of having a tragedy in common with them, she supposed. Caitlin couldn't help but worry the connection wouldn't last, whether they got Ronnie and Martin back or not.

Still, they'd taken her back to STAR Labs and she'd promised to call them whenever progress was made in declassifying the FIRESTORM research. Lily wanted to be involved in helping find an answer for splitting her father and Ronnie back into their disparate selves. Caitlin looked forward to working with her, despite the circumstances. Lily had a sharp mind and...

There was an itch at the back of her head again. Caitlin frowned and, unlike the night before, Caitlin turned in the direction the feeling came from. The upper level of the garage.

"Ronnie?" she called hesitantly. Then, stronger, more assured, "Ronnie? Professor Stein?" A quiet, startled sound met Caitlin's straining ears.

Caitlin started walking towards the incline that led upwards.

"Dr. Wells is looking into the FIRESTORM research. He's optimistic we can safely reverse the process that merged the two of you." All of which was technically true... mostly. Caitlin just wanted to bring him... them in from the cold. "Lily's going to be working with us. I met her today, Professor. She's brilliant. Dr. Wells will probably try and lure her away from academia." There was a shuffling noise but not a running away noise, so she kept walking and talking. "Cisco blames himself, for what happened to you. No one else does, but guilt is rarely rational. It'll help a lot once he can see you again, Ronnie. The two of you can talk about what happened. He's dating Hartley now. About time right? Hartley finally asked him out last week." And, finally, Caitlin was far enough up the incline to look up and see Ronnie.

He looked unkempt, like he'd been living rough. Wearing clothes she'd never seen on him before, his hair longer than she remembered. Ragged along the edges. Stubble all over his face.

She gave a half-laugh and half-sob to see her Ronnie, standing there. "I've missed you so much."

"Caitlin..." Ronnie breathed her name out, like a prayer.

"Hi Ronnie. Is Professor Stein in there too?"

"We're both here," they said. "You... met Lily?"

"And Clarissa. They miss you so much, Martin. As much as I miss Ronnie. Please, will you let us help?" For a moment... they looked like they would. They reached out to Caitlin as she finished approaching them, slow and steady.

And then Ronnie's face contorted in a grimace. Something was going wrong... and fire burst out of their hands.

Caitlin tumbled to the ground, shouting Ronnie's name as he... he ran towards an opening on the side of the garage and literally flew away in a burst of flame. She was so transfixed by the sight that she didn't notice, at first, that she wasn't burned. Not even singed.

Carefully getting to her feet, Caitlin examined the thin layer of frost that covered her arms and had spread across the ground. And, despite the disaster that attempt at contact had become, a slow smile curved along Caitlin's mouth. She held out her hands, palms up, and concentrated. She hadn't done this since she was a child; hadn't been capable of it after her mother had tricked her. But now...

She opened her eyes and her smile widened further. In each hand, she held a small chunk of ice.

"Are you awake?" Caitlin asked softly, but there was no answer. Not yet.


	3. Chapter 3

Cisco kissed Hartley on the cheek. "Just think of me as your emotional support Cisco. If you need me for anything, I'll be in the main entry reading comic books. And if you need me to sit in during the meeting, then I can totally read comic books in here instead."

"I think I'll be fine with you waiting for me outside," Hartley told him, grinning as warmth bubbled up in his chest. Asking Cisco out might've been an accident - Hartley's brain to mouth filter had still been recovering after the rage incident and it was, quite possibly, the first time Hartley's internal monologue actually being an external monologue had worked in his favor - but Hartley wouldn't change a thing. He was already head over heels in love with Cisco and he felt safer with his boyfriend around, even if the man was waiting a few rooms away. "Would you send everyone my way as they arrive? Barry's already called to say he isn't going to make it; he picked up a double homicide that has something to do some evidence tampering investigation. He sounded pretty distracted by whatever evidence he was processing."

"Yeah, sure thing Hart," Cisco assured him before heading out the room.

It was going to be weird holding the meeting without Barry. They'd run the first meeting together, but Barry'd run the second one on his own since Hartley was still recovering from the rage incident. Now Hartley was going to have to run the meeting on his own without Barry's support. What happened if neither of them could make it? Did they cancel the meetings altogether?

Hartley didn't like that answer. Maybe they could talk to Farooq to see how he felt about helping keep meetings on track if neither Barry nor Hartley were there? It was a thought, anyway.

There was a knock on the door and Hartley looked up. He froze for a moment at the sight of Roy Bivolo standing there nervously. 

"Uh... hi. Are you... is it okay if I'm here? I can leave if you'd rather..."

"Stay," Hartley told Roy firmly. "I'm glad you came." He waved Roy inside the room.

Roy's gaze was dangerous - inciting anger in ordinary humans and a rage cycle in meta humans - but he wore polarized sunglasses that negated any accidental uses of his powers. As long as everyone behaved themselves and didn't snatch Roy's glasses, it was perfectly safe for Hartley and the others to be around him.

"I don't know if Caitlin mentioned this to you when you came by on Tuesday, but Cisco and I are looking into developing a polarized coating that can be added to the windows on your car and apartment. My actual goal is to create some kind of contact lenses for you, but I need to learn more about how regular contact lenses are manufactured before I start trying to alter that process."

"Thank you. I get nervous lately when I drive at night because I can't wear the sunglasses and drive in the dark," Roy admitted, taking a seat. "It's not safe. And I also feel unsafe having the windows open during the day because if I look out at someone by accident... but I need the natural light for painting and wearing my sunglasses while painting isn't ideal. Contacts would be nice to have, but making windows safe for me to look through fixes my immediate concerns. Dr. Snow wants me to learn meditation. She thinks it'll help me learn control so that I won't need to wear the sunglasses all the time, but..."

"Control takes time to learn."

"Exactly."

Hartley felt some of his stress melt away after that exchange and he's fairly relaxed by the time Farooq and Linda show up. Joss, Norvock, and Griffen trickle in and Hartley gives them all a few minutes to just mingle before asking them all to settle in the chairs to start the meeting. He lets them know that Barry isn't going to be able to make it that evening and then asks Farooq if he'll do the honors of reminding them about what they discussed the week before. Then Linda takes the lead in setting the topic for that evening's discussion - concerns she had about the legal protection of metas who used their powers for self defense.

If Hartley was supposed to help represent meta human concerns at those meetings Barry wanted him to join at the DA's office and City Hall, then it was certainly a good thing Hartley was hearing all these differing opinions now.

Ten minutes before the meeting was set to end, Cisco poked his head into the room. "I'm really sorry to interrupt, but can I steal Hartley for a few minutes?"

"I guess," Griffen huffed, amused grin belying the kid's tone.

"Brat," Farooq teased, elbowing Griffen lightly. Farooq had taken the teenager under his wing, as it were, the once sullen kid showing hints of the cheerful person he'd been before the more unfortunate realities of his powers sank in.

"Yeah, we can spare him," Linda added with a laugh.

"I'll be right back," Hartley promised, smiling as Roy gently got the group conversation back on track. He followed Cisco out into the hall and shut the door behind him. "Something wrong, Cisco?'

"A man on fire just flew out of the parking garage." Cisco's expression was hopeful. "I think it was Ronnie. Caitlin's car was still in there when I moved your car around to the visitor's lot. I thought I should go check the garage, but I didn't think going alone was a good idea."

"Let's go take a look, then." Hartley slipped his hand into Cisco's and then they went out the front doors, since walking into the garage from the outside of the building would be faster than using the inside entrance. "So I had an idea, which I'll need to run by Harrison, but I wanted your take on it. Instead of putting back up all the pictures on the photo wall, what if we hired Roy to paint a mural. He is an artist and I, uh... I looked up his work online. A lot of it is really beautiful."

"You'll have to show me his website at dinner," Cisco told him. "Sounds like a good idea, though. You'll have to tell me what Dr. Wells says when you ask."

They were both nervous, uncertain as to what they'd be walking into once they reached the garage, so they kept up chatting about inconsequential things as they headed inside. Once they could get a good view of the interior of the garage, however, they could see Caitlin coming around the bend from the ramp leading up to the second level.

"Caitlin!" Cisco shouted, surging ahead out of worry.

She looked physically okay to Hartley, though there was something odd about her expression. Caitlin latched on to Cisco and then they pulled Hartley into their group hug as he reached them. She was freezing and Hartley shivered at her touch even as both he and Cisco hugged her tightly.

"Are you alright?" he asked at the same time Cisco said, "are you okay?"

"I'll be alright," Caitlin promised, disentangling herself from their hug. "I saw Ronnie. I spoke to him. He's really alive..."

Cisco hugged her again and Hartley felt something like relief crash into him. It was one thing to see the video evidence, but another thing entirely for Caitlin to have seen Ronnie for herself. And tomorrow they'd have access to the FIRESTORM documents. He just had to keep faith that everything would keep coming together.

* * *

Barry was snuggled under the covers of the bed in the sleeper couch, Lisa asleep next to him with her head pillowed on his shoulder and his arm around her while the credits of an episode of _Gilmore Girls_ rolled across the screen. She'd fallen asleep a whole episode ago, but Barry'd always enjoyed the antics of the residents of Stars Hallow. He'd watched the original airings of the show with Iris during middle school and high school; he had a very different interpretation of some of the show's events now that he was an adult, but it was a fun watch. He might've gone for another episode, except Len and Mick finally came back from their bar crawl run.

Mick was clearly a little drunk and Len waved Barry off as he stopped the show. Len led Mick into the master bedroom and, presumably, poured his friend into bed. Barry slid out of the bed anyway (Lisa made a sleepy grumbling noise but didn't actually wake) and then padded over to the kitchen, pouring a glass of water for Mick. Len collected the glass with an amused smile and then detoured to the bathroom, presumably for some aspirin. Then Len headed briefly back into Mick's room and then came back out, shutting the door behind him.

"I never should have offered to buy his drinks tonight," Len muttered with a shake of his head. "You didn't have to get up," he added, joining Barry back in the kitchen and kissing him.

"But then I wouldn't have gotten that kiss just now," Barry teased. Len's smile in return seemed a touch off, though, so Barry asked, "you okay?"

"Mick finally asked about that last job I went on. We talked about my dad some. It wasn't..." Len's eyes went distant for a moment. "It wasn't easy, but I think I needed it." He pulled away. "Come on, help me get Lisa to bed." Len carefully scooped his sister up in his arms while Barry got the door to the guest room and turned down the sheets.

Lisa curled trustingly against her brother's chest as he carried her, never once waking. Len slipped her under the covers and carefully brushed her hair away from her face before heading back into the living room with Barry.

"Might have nightmares tonight," Len said, gazing uncertainly at the bed.

It wouldn't be the first time Len had nightmares while in bed with Barry. Len would probably always worry about the potential to hurt Barry, even accidentally. "You always sleep better with me. We can talk first, though. Or you could always watch some more _Gilmore Girls_ with me?" Barry moved fast enough to get out of the way if Len had nightmares and healed fast enough any accidental bruising would vanish within hours... and was smart enough to know neither reassurance would actually reassure Len.

The look of 'oh god no' in response to the Gilmore Girls question was absolutely comical and Barry could not stop himself from snickering.

"Jerk," Len muttered, turning off the tv before pulling off his shirt and changing into pajama pants. Barry flipped off the lights and they got together, neither quite ready to sleep yet for all that they cuddled close.

"What's really bothering you?" Barry asked, enjoying the feel of Len's skin beneath his hands. Perks of having a boyfriend who preferred sleeping with as little clothing as possible. The pajama pants were a concession to the fact they were sleeping on Mick's couch.

"Ran into someone I used to know at lunch with Mick," Len finally said. "They... an assumption was made, when I went to prison and my father went into the ground. And I encouraged that assumption in prison. It was safer that way. At least I thought it was."

"Did this person threaten you?" Barry asked carefully.

"No. Just made things really uncomfortable." Len shifted away. "Sometimes I think the only reason those assumptions aren't true is because I didn't have a gun on me that day."

Considering the threat Lewis Snart had posed to Lisa's life? Barry has no doubt Len is very serious about that statement.

"Len, if I had a chance to confront the person who really murdered my mother? I honestly don't know that I wouldn't try to kill him myself." Barry sat up and pulled Len with him. "I'd like to think that I'd do whatever the right thing is, but if he was standing in front of me today, a threat to everyone I love again... it's not the same, I know that. But it's not that different either." And Barry wouldn't need a gun either, which was the terrifying part. His powers could do some truly awful damage.

Cupping Barry's face, Len pulled him into a hard kiss that, not for the first time that week, had Barry regretting they were in Mick's living room and not Barry's. At the same time...

"So are you still weirded out by the fact that there were cameras in my bedroom? Because I am," Barry babbled a touch breathlessly when their kiss ended.

Laughter bubbled up out of Len that had Barry brushing another kiss against his lips. "Yeah," Len agreed, voice rough in a way that did things to Barry. "Still gonna blow you in there first thing when we go back Saturday."

Barry whined. Oh that was unfair. That was so unfair. 

"Mick is trying to get me to join his home remodeling team again. Apparently his electrician is looking to take on an apprentice. And that was... that was my plan, before I got arrested." Len fiddled with the blanket. "Salary would be good, don't know about benefits, but... no more part time work and minimum wage. But it'd be long hours on the job and attending a vocational school."

"If it's what you want, you should go for it. You know you've got everyone's support. But... you don't sound thrilled by the idea." 

"I'd rather work with Lisa. But I can't until my parole ends which isn't for another four years. I can probably petition to have the terms of my parole softened eventually, but the lawyer I talked it over with said I'm not likely to have the petition even considered until I've served two or three years parole with outstanding behavior and some extra volunteering to make me look good. Which probably means even then, odds aren't in my favor." Len paused a beat and then said, "I took a lot of electrical engineering self study and some courses while I was still locked up. I wonder if any of that'd carry over credit so I can spend less time in class." 

"Sounds like you're thinking about doing this."

"Yeah well, bet being an electrician will come in handy when I can finally work with Lise again." Len lay back down and Barry cuddled back with him.

* * *

Len frowned as he glanced at the address he'd gotten from Kuttler before heading into work that morning.

Kuttler had handed over the camera and a printout with an IP address and the real world location in Central City it resolved to, along with a warning that just because that IP address was right didn't mean the real world one was what he was looking for.

_"People steal each other's wifi all the time, if the password's easy enough to hack. And there are enough abandoned buildings in that part of Central that, if the signal on the wifi is strong enough, whoever's been spying on you could be in any number of buildings. Or long gone entirely."_

The information had been burning a hole in Len's pocket all morning and at lunch time he took off to at least check out the area. Like Kuttler had warned, abandoned buildings all over the place. Thankfully it was fairly close to the bakery so as long as he didn't linger too long, he'd be back in time for the rest of his shift.

The address where the IP resolved to was abandoned. Illegal electrical tap on the outside from the looks of things, which made Len more than a little curious how the building was getting its internet connection in the first place. If he could pinpoint this as the place where the cameras were being watched from, Len had figured he could call in an anonymous tip and, on Thanksgiving that Thursday, officially 'discover' the dead camera at West's place. If he couldn't find an excuse to call in the tip, then he'd still get rid of the camera on Thursday. He'd do what he could to protect Barry, but getting himself tossed back in jail for pushing too hard wasn't going to help anyone. 

It was a narrow line to walk but one Len was determined to manage.

Hopefully, though, he'd be able to find something either here or in one of the surrounding buildings that would make the money he'd paid Kuttler worth while.

No visible cameras anywhere on the street but that didn't mean there weren't any. The front door of the building was unlocked, so Len let himself in. It was an empty storefront, nothing of value left. Either packed up or looted long ago. No sign of a wifi router either.

In the back room there was evidence of recent activity. Dust disturbed everywhere, evidence of a PC and some monitors having been there at some point. Moved within the last few days no doubt. Still no sign of a router which probably meant it had all been moved the night before. Kuttler's tracing of the signal must've been detected.

Len swore softly and resisted the urge to punch the door frame. He wasn't exactly keen on leaving behind any evidence he'd been there either. But it was a fucking bust and he couldn't help feel like he'd taken the risk of reaching out to Kuttler for nothing.

He left out the back way and headed out the alley way back on to the street. Then... paused. Backtracked.

There was a cardboard lean-to in the back of the alley. Hopefully the owner was home. Len knocked on the wall the cardboard was up against and... a man peered out at Len mistrustfully.

"What d'ya want?"

Len pulled forty bucks out of his wallet. "Have you seen any weird activity at that building," he pointed at the one he'd just come out of, "this last few weeks?"

"Alley was full of lightning last night. Prettiest light show I've ever seen. And there was a man in the middle of it, like the Flash," the man said, taking the money and shoving it into his jacket somewhere. "Ain't never seen nothing like it."

"Like the Flash, meaning it wasn't the Flash?" Len clarified. It was possible Barry had been out here the night before, but between being pulled onto the Zolomon case, binge watching Gilmore Girls with Lisa, and cuddling with Len on the couch all night, Len kind of doubted Barry had made the time. Still, any details he could get out of this guy would be beneficial.

"The Flash wears red, right? Heard he wears red. Thought it was him at first when the place lit up with red lightning, so I moved further back behind the dumpster," he jerked a thumb at the one he meant, which his cardboard lean-to leaned up against on one side, giving it something of a disguise to an unpracticed eye. Someone less observant than Len would dismiss it as a box that missed its target. "The man in the lightning wore yellow."

Len froze. He'd heard those words before, from Barry. When he'd first told Len about his mother's death. _"The man in the lightning killed my mother. He wore some kind of yellow suit and mask...""_ He had a sudden, sick certainty he knew exactly who'd been spying on them. Len pulled the rest of the cash out of his wallet. Amounted to about seventeen bucks but it was better than nothing. "The person leaving those red lightning trails is dangerous. You should find a safer place to sleep."

The extra money got snapped up. "Yeah, sure," was the distracted response. The guy would either move or he wouldn't, but at least Len had tried to warn him.

Len turned and headed out of the alleyway again. He had to get back to work... and he had to figure out how to tell Barry not only that he'd done a little side investigating on his own, but that it was very possible that the person who'd been spying on them was the man who'd murdered Barry's mother. 

* * *

Eobard scowled and shut off the video feed. Losing the camera surveillance of Barry was a setback to be sure, but they were less of a necessity now that Barry was a frequent visitor to STAR Labs. What concerned him now was Leonard Snart's little investigation.

He'd done a good enough job of hiding his cyber trail that Eobard wasn't concerned with the CCPD discovering where the video feeds had been directed to. But then last night, Gideon had reported a breach. The dummy site - AKA the final location of the wifi camera's signal before the displays were mirrored into the Time Vault at STAR Labs - had been breached by a hacker named Noah Kuttler. Otherwise known as the Calculator and father to one Felicity Smoak, associate of Oliver Queen and friend to Barry Allen.

At first, Eobard had thought that the perpetrator was Smoak herself, doing a favor for her second favorite vigilante. In a bit of a panicked rush, he'd run to the building to empty out the tech so none of it could be traced back to STAR Labs. And then he'd waited for Barry to show. And waited... and waited... and finally left a camera behind, well hidden where it hopefully wouldn't be noticed before Eobard could retrieve it later. It was only after he'd planted the new camera and returned to the Time Vault that Gideon revealed she'd traced the hack back to Kuttler.

The likelihood that the Flash would have dealings with the Calculator were slim despite of - or, perhaps, because of - his friendship with the man's daughter. But Snart was an entirely different story. And sure enough, Snart went poking around.

Barry's relationship with the criminal was truly vexing. Even in the original timeline, the Flash had paid Captain Cold far more attention than the thief had deserved. That they were dating now certainly placed that unwarranted attention in a new light. And their relations also made it even more difficult for Eobard to uncouple his ancestor from Iris West in time to introduce him to the woman who was meant to be his wife. As it was, the family line that lead from Edward Thawne to Eobard was looking unfairly precarious.

And now Eobard was being distracted by the poorly timed investigation into FIRESTORM. Truly, when it rained, it poured.

Still, the investigation into Hunter Zolomon at least looked promising.

"Caitlin," Eobard called, rolling out into the Cortex. "I've just received word that FIRESTORM has been declassified for our perusal, though it won't be available until tomorrow. Would you contact the Stein's and have Lily meet us here first thing in the morning?"

"Of course." Caitlin's expression was unusually closed off and unreadable. "Do everything you can to bring Ronnie back to me," she said. An order, not a request.

He nodded. Derailing FIRESTORM in the first place had been an accident. He'd intended for Hartley to die in the pipeline. That Hartley was so useful now was a boon, of course, but losing FIRESTORM had forced Eobard to rework some of his plans. Now, perhaps, some of his previous plots were potentially back on.

"I promise, Caitlin. If it's within my ability to do so, you'll be back with Ronnie soon." And then it might be time to figure out what it would take to trigger Caitlin's meta powers. Killer Frost would make an excellent diversion.

* * *

Barry had poured over the box of evidence from the Amelia Garret case, comparing crime scene photos to the actual logged evidence. Except for the picture, there was no sign that the the cloth - presumably covered in chloroform - had ever existed. There didn't appear to be any other missing evidence, but just one missing piece was bad enough. Donelli and Peterson were tracking down the detectives who'd been assigned to the original investigation, but that had been at the height of the fallout from Barry's lawsuit and Jennings' 'retirement'. Neither detective was still at the CCPD.

Once he finished cataloging the evidence from the cold case, Barry switched gears to running tests on his newest case. A second body had been discovered buried beneath the first and Barry had scraped under their fingernails for possible DNA evidence the night before. While they had a lot of machines at the off site lab, DNA sequencing was still something they had to outsource, so Barry had sent his samples off for processing. He'd do the actual DNA comparisons once the results were returned, however, using the DNA they had on file for Zolomon as a comparison. All the CSIs had their DNA on file, in fact, to rule out cases of accidental contamination quickly.

Neither body was that of Amelia Garret, though the most recently buried of the two had been tentatively identified as Jane Watson, a grad student at CCU. She bore a distinct resemblance to Amelia Garret and Barry had no doubt that once the second body was identified, they'd find it had belonged to a woman who'd also resembled the missing Ms. Garret.

It was likely that the murderer - now officially a serial killer - had killed Amelia Garret in March and then selected his next victims as stand ins for his first victim. It made sense, assuming Zolomon was the murderer. Jane Watson had been reported missing a few weeks earlier in Keystone, though she'd only been dead for about a week and a half. The unidentified victim had been dead and buried for approximately three to four months. Barry was worried there might be other victims, a concern Donelli and Peterson shared. They had dogs brought in who'd been trained to identify where dead bodies were buried that morning. There'd been nothing found so far, but they'd probably be at it all day.

But they did have plenty of evidence for Barry to process just from the two women found so far. Soil samples from the grave, their clothes, their jewelry...

In fact, the jewelry caught Barry's eye in particular. Apparently both women had been buried wearing the same necklace. 

Barry dumped the evidence bag containing the necklace into a small tray and spread the chain out so he could get a better look at it. Silver chain, long enough that the pendant would have likely rested against the hollow of the victim's throat. It was a circular pendant with a diagonal line running through it, but hard to identify the exact shape of the line due to the dirt crusted on it. Carefully, Barry cleaned the dirt off.

Barry nearly dropped the tools he was using to clean the necklace. Because it wasn't a diagonal line. It was a lightning bolt.

It had to be a coincidence... right? 

The second necklace went into a tray like the first and was similarly examined and cleaned. It was identical to the first. Simple circular pendant bisected diagonally with a lightning bolt.

It was ridiculous of Barry to worry that someone was using these necklaces as a taunt for him specifically... right? 

Right.

He looked them over and for clues as to where they'd been purchased and found a tiny serial number on the back. A quick search led Barry to a local artisan shop that did some custom work, though this exact necklace was one of a series created the year before. He wrote up his findings and went to move on to the next piece of evidence. But he felt distracted by the necklaces for the rest of the day.

There was no way they could have been intended as a taunt, but it certainly felt that way regardless.


	4. Chapter 4

Morning, Julian decided, always came too early. He'd lost track, at this point, how many cups of Earl Grey tea he'd already had that morning though he was well aware of the sullen disappointment that came from being awake for five hours while the fog in his brain still showed no signs of lifting. The problem of working an extra early morning shift on a Saturday, he supposed, but the evidence wasn't going to process itself.

At least he'd be able to sleep in on Sunday. 

He had a number of cases to catch up on and he was trying not to think about what evidence he'd processed in the past would be up for re-evaluation by an outside party. But there was one case in particular that was gnawing at him. The Nora Allen murder. The blood samples he'd taken had been dried for years and contaminated by wallpaper adhesive. They should have been useless once he returned to his lab.

They weren't, however. 

Julian had put them under a microscope and... what should have been dead cells were still present and... regenerating. Sparking with energy. And it appeared likely that the DNA was still viable. Neither the in house lab nor the off site lab have the equipment to sequence that DNA, however, so Julian had sent it out to the outside lab they contracted for these sorts of tests. It could take a few days to get that back, however, and Julian would have to run the results through the system himself, since they didn't have any comparison DNA on hand.

Time for another cup of tea, Julian decided when he went to take another drink only to get smacked in the mouth with a teabag and no drinkable tea. He eyed the teabag all the way back to the break room before dumping it. He had already made two cups with it and the second one was noticeably weaker than the first. He really needed to refill his stash of loose leaf as what was available in the break room was barely palatable. (Julian was descended of a long line of tea snobs. Better tea than coffee, though.)

To his surprise, Allen was sitting, half asleep, at one of the tables when he entered the room. Making himself a cup of the breakfast blend tea this time, in hopes that its caffeine content might make up for the lack of flavor, Julian took a seat beside the other CSI. "What brings you back to the station this ungodly hour of the morning?"

"What time is it?" Barry grumbled, looking at his watch and then raising an eyebrow. 

"Yes, I'm aware it's ten AM. Wouldn't be bad if I hadn't been here since five," Julian sighed. "Three more hours and then I can have lunch and sleep the afternoon away. Also, any hour of the morning on what should have been my day off where I slept in until noon is an ungodly one."

Barry snickered. "Called in for an emergency or is this the unexpected suffering caused by Zolomon abruptly going off rotation?"

"The second one. Why are you here?"

"The first." Barry yawned into a hand and then stretched. "Only been here for two hours, though, and I'll be leaving once Lisa arrives to pick me up. Though when I say emergency, it was not one by my standards but it was certainly presented as such over the phone."

"Oh?"

"Detective Winston somehow found out that I'm involved in the preliminary discussions about how current laws will be applied to meta humans. Like, say a meta's powers manifest for the first time, they don't know how to control those powers, and someone gets hurt. Or someone commits a crime using their powers. Or someone commits a crime because someone used their powers on them."

"How'd you wind up volunteered for that?"

Allen opened his mouth and then shut it again. Then he sighed. "Enhanced healing. It's not fixing my scars and I still haven't figured out how I feel about that, but the nerve damage caused by the lightning strike has been completely healed."

"That is impressive." Julian resisted the urge to ask probing questions that are none of his business and would probably be intensely rude to voice. He'd like not to alienate a coworker who thought him trustworthy enough to come out to as a meta human, even if Barry wasn't telling him the whole story. "And lucky. What does any of that have to do with Winston's non-emergency?"

There was a spark of anger in his voice as he answered. "One of his suspects is a meta human. Winston didn't realize I'm a meta human, he just thought I was good at identifying the 'new criminal element in Central'." Julian could practically hear the scare quotes and he had no doubt Barry was repeating Winston's words exactly as the asshole had spoken them.

"He's such a fucking idiot." Julian paused a beat and blinked owlishly. "And I'm more tired than I thought. Don't usually swear at work."

Barry was grinning, though. At least he hadn't been offended. "You're not wrong, though. His suspect couldn't have committed the crime. He had an alibi so unless his powers let him be two places at once, he couldn't possibly be responsible. I left him explaining his ignorant and bigoted comments towards meta humans in Captain Singh's office."

"Oooh. Pretty sure this is his third strike too. If he can't find placement at some other precinct, he's going to be out of a job." Julian paused a beat. And then, he really, really couldn't help it. "Enhanced healing... does that mean caffeine no longer works for you?"

"Don't remind me," Barry groaned, dropping his head back onto his crossed arms on the table.

"Sorry." Julian tried, valiantly, not to laugh but a few snickers might've escaped him anyway. "So I guess you'll be spending a lot of time in and out of the precinct and the DA's office if DA Horton is pulling you into all those discussions to represent meta human interests?"

"Yeah, it's looking that way. Though I'm going to wind up pulling Dr. Hartley Rathaway from STAR Labs into too. If I must suffer, he must suffer." Barry didn't bother to sit back up again as he spoke, merely tilting his head to the side so that he wouldn't be muffled. "He's a friend and a fellow meta and very open about his abilities."

"Well... I was just thinking... the lab here is pretty big for just one person. If you were interested in coming back here again, I'm sure we could discuss with Captain Singh the possibility of sharing the lab space." The DA's office was across the street from the precinct and if Allen was going to be in and out of both buildings and then having to go all the way back to the offsite lab... it made more sense for him to work here again. Julian wasn't willing to give up working out of this lab - he liked it better - but... there was space for additional equipment and a desk to make it a two-person lab. And having two people on-site would probably be less stressful for Julian than being the sole point of contact for the CSIs...

Looking back up, Barry smiled at Julian. "Thanks. That's... not a bad idea."

* * *

Barry slumped onto the couch, Lisa beside him. They had an early lunch after Lisa'd picked him up from the precinct and then they spent a great deal of time inspecting - and reinspecting - their apartments for any cameras that might've been missed. They hadn't found anything, but the paranoid feeling that they weren't safe and secure in their expectation of privacy within their own homes continued to linger.

Lisa drummed her fingers along her knees. "I'm going to have to clear out some of my fridge."

"Me too." Barry leaned back and ignored the urge to pull the cushions off the couch one more time. He'd been over the apartment multiple times since Tuesday. The investigative teams from the CCPD had been all over his apartment too. Len and Mick had gone over everything a few times as well.

"I don't feel safe in my apartment," Lisa finally said. 

"Sorry."

"Not your fault," Lisa reminded him, thwacking him in the face with a couch pillow. Barry snatched the pillow from her and buried his face in it for a moment before clutching it to his chest and tucking the top of the pillow beneath his chin.

"I don't feel safe here either," he admitted. Then, hesitantly, "what if we found a new place. For all three of us?"

"Are you asking us to move in with you?" Lisa teased.

Barry just nodded. "We practically live together already. And what are the odds we can find two apartments across from each other in order to continue living _Friends_ style the way we've become used to?"

"Does that make me Monica, Len Ross, and you're Rachel?"

"Let's not take the metaphor that far, okay?"

They exchanged grins and the moment of levity helped ease some of the tension they were both feeling.

"Bring it up again later, when Len gets back from work. But..." Lisa dragged out the word. "I'm not opposed. In fact... I really the idea."

* * *

Hartley liked Lily Stein. If Harrison didn't immediately start trying to poach her from the university, Hartley was going to do so in his place. She had a good head on her shoulders, was good at defusing arguments, and got along well with Caitlin in particular.

The FIRESTORM research was brilliant, but Hartley could see immediately why Professor Stein had stalled out on it and was hoping that STAR Lab's dark energy research would give it the jump start it needed to keep progressing. But without Stein's leadership and no access to the dark energy data, the FIRESTORM project had been shut down entirely back in February.

Though if Hartley were being perfectly honest, he's kind of glad the FIRESTORM research got mothballed. It was basically super soldier research, for all that he had no doubt Professor Stein had only seen the good that could come from a person or persons linked to a FIRESTORM matrix. As far as Hartley was concerned, the American military complex needed less funding not more - and quite literal - firepower.

However, after much theorizing and covering whiteboards in enough math to make even Hartley's head spin (he was starting to get another headache and wanted nothing more to curl up on a couch with his head on Cisco's lap) it was finally time to start building the prototype quantum splicer, as named by Cisco.

"You okay?" Lily asked when Hartley winced at a combination of bright lights and loud noises one too many times.

"I've got enhanced hearing," he told her, looking up from where he was sitting. "So headaches are, unfortunately, pretty common for me. My hearing aids help regulate the noise, but..."

"Maybe we should take a break then." Lily stood up and stretched. "We've made more progress in an afternoon than I'd thought possible and it's definitely time for a snack break if not dinner."

"Oh I second that. Dinner sounds so good right now," Cisco spoke up, coming over and dropping his hands onto Hartley's shoulders. Which he then started to dig his thumbs in for a shoulder rub that had tension Hartley hadn't even noticed just... melting away. The headache near instantly lessened in intensity.

"You're wonderful," Hartley muttered leaning back into his boyfriend's touch and tilting his head back so he could smile up at Cisco. Probably a very sappy smile, but Hartley was entitled. He had a cute boyfriend who gave shoulder rubs and looked really hot when engaging in physics debates. 

"They just started dating, didn't they?" Lily asked in an aside to Caitlin.

"Yeah. About a week. Hartley's had a crush on Cisco for the longest time, but it took Cisco a little while to realize he liked Hartley back. And then they mutually pined for months because they're dorks," Caitlin replied, equally quiet.

"Shut up Caitlin," Hartley said loudly, looking over at her and then sticking his tongue out at her when she looked back.

Lily snickered.

"Caitlin, would you let Detective Thawne know we may have a solution for splitting Professor Stein and Ronnie apart?" Harrison asked, smiling when Caitlin nodded. "I don't suppose I can convince whoever makes the dinner run to stop by Big Belly Burger?"

"That sounds good, I vote for that too. In fact, how about I make the dinner run?" Lily offered.

"I'll go with you," Cisco volunteered. "That way I can badge us both in and there'll be more hands to carry the food."

"Thanks." The two of them took the rest of their dinner orders and then disappeared.

Hartley missed Cisco's hands on his shoulders immediately. But his brief reprieve was over. Caitlin went down the hall to make her phone call and Hartley followed Harrison back to the equation filled boards.

"I'm still concerned about the amount of energy that'll be released when they split," Hartley said, eyes drawn to the calculations they'd come up with earlier. He suspected their estimations were conservative compared to what was really going on. Caitlin had related her encounter with Ronnie-Stein in the parking lot and if they were able to generate enough fire to actually fly and enough control not to burn their own clothes off...

"We'll be able to calculate it better once we can take actual readings from them," Harrison assured him. "While I've no doubt the energy output will increase, we can always transport them to Ferris Air before using the splicer. It's a good distance from the city and I don't particularly care if the building there is damaged."

"We'd need Barry to do the transporting for us. He can take them whatever distance is appropriate, get out of the way, and then bring them back once its safe again," Hartley mused.

"I... I've been meaning to ask you, Hartley. Next week... how were things at the support group last night?" Harrison paused a beat, before adding, "if this is something you'd rather not discuss with me..."

"It's fine, Harrison. I don't mind you asking." Hartley sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "It was weird at first, but I was fine. And I was really glad Bivolo showed up to join us. The last thing I wanted was to accidentally set a precedent of not helping someone just because their powers scare me a little."

"They're lucky to have you looking out for them," Harrison said, tone fond.

Hartley felt his cheeks heat at the compliment. "Barry asked me to attend some of the preliminary meetings for determining how current laws apply to metas and what legal protections for metas are necessary going forward."

"You should do it. One of the reasons I was so quick to brush what happened under the rug last week was because I didn't trust the law as it currently stands to protect either you or Bivolo. Barry clearly didn't either. I have no doubt the two of you working together can effect great changes for the protection of both meta humans and those affected by meta human abilities." Harrison pulled out a sketchpad and beckoned Hartley over. "How about we at least start on the design for the quantum splicer while we're waiting for Cisco and Lily to return with dinner?"

"Sure."

* * *

Barry's phone is ringing. It's timing is terrible.

Len - shirtless, fly of his pants open, looking fucking edible - is kneeling in front of Barry - also shirtless, pants still buttoned but that wasn't going to last long...

And of course that's when the phone rings. 

"You gonna answer that?" Len taunts.

"No."

"Could be an emergency," Len points out, eyes flicking towards Barry's crotch. Damn tease. "Might be someone needing the Flash."

Barry hissed in frustration and then reached over to grab his phone. Praying it'd be an unknown caller id. But it isn't. It's Eddie. Which means it might very well be an emergency after all.

"Dammit," Barry mutters and then hits the answer button. "Hey Eddie, what's up?"

"I could really use your help with a missing person case I'm working."

There is a distinct litany of swear words running through Barry's head, but he manages to say, "first thing in the morning?"

"Sorry, Barry," and Eddie really does sound apologetic. "I'm not really sure what kind of timeline I'm looking at here, but the two people missing are meta humans. They somehow merged into a single person who can generate fire at will and in their merged state they're not in a mentally healthy place. They might be a danger to themselves and others. I've been in contact with your friends at STAR Labs and Dr. Wells and Hartley are confident they can split these two people back up, but... the sooner, the better."

Barry was already hunting for his shirt. "Can I meet you at STAR Labs? I can get the full story there and you can tell me where you need me to run from there, okay?"

"Thanks Barry. I'm sorry I interrupted your first night back home," Eddie added apologetically.

"It's fine," Barry assured him. "But if you really want to make it up to me, you can run interference between Joe and Len on Thanksgiving."

"Uh, sure, though I thought things went well at dinner over the weekend?" Eddie sounded a bit confused.

"That was for just a dinner. This'll be pretty much all day," Barry pointed out. "And Lisa will be there too. Neither she nor Len like football; they're hockey fans."

That got a laugh out of Eddie. "I'll do what I can," Eddie promised. "See you in a few minutes?"

"Be there in a flash," Barry replied, hanging up on Eddie's mock-pained groan.

"I didn't actually want you to answer the phone," Len pouted, though he'd already zipped up and pulled on his own shirt. "Sounds like it really is an emergency, though?"

"Yeah, sounds that way," Barry agreed, kissing Len hard and need, his arousal still simmering hot below the surface. "Meta with powers Mick will love to hear about."

"Fire." Len didn't even need to guess with a hint like that. "Be careful Barry."

"You know, my suit was originally intended for firefighters of the hellfighter variety." Barry kissed Len again, gently this time. "I'll be careful; I've lit my shoes and shirts on fire enough times from the friction to know even if the burns don't last long, they still hurt like hell before they're done. And I'd rather not have to wait until the morning to get back to what we were up to before Eddie called."

Len stretched his legs and winced. "Might want to move it to the bed instead of the floor, though. My knees do not like this carpet."

Barry wanted to say something about maybe their new place would have better carpet, but he hadn't even brought up the possibility of the three of them - Len, Barry, and Lisa - moving in together yet. So he just kissed Len one last time for the road, said his goodbyes, and ran off, stopping only to slip his shoes on in the living room before phasing through the door and heading to STAR Labs in a blur of light.

He skidded to a stop in the Cortex. "Uh, hey guys. Eddie said..."

"I called you from the parking lot and you still got here before me," Eddie interrupted, his griping belied by the amused tone. "That's so not fair."

"Oh wow, you're the Flash," said an unfamiliar voice.

Eddie visibly winced. "And I probably should've told you to meet me upstairs."

"It's fine," Barry assured him, then turned to the woman. "Just, please don't tell anyone? I generally only tell people I have enhanced healing, not the super speed part."

"Oh, sure. Of course. Um, hi. I'm Professor Lily Stein." She offered Barry a handshake and he took it with a grin.

"Barry Allen," he replied. "Where are you a professor at?" 

"CCU."

"Do you know anything about their forensic's department? I got my master's out of state, but I'm considering going back for my doctorate next fall and... this should wait for later, sorry." Barry was relieved that she just grinned.

"I'm not in the forensics department myself, but our post grad department is one of the best... and you're right, this is better saved for later." Lily laughed nervously.

"So... missing persons case I was telling you about over the phone," Eddie cut in. "Lily's father, Professor Martin Stein, is one of the two missing people. The other is..." he glanced over at Caitlin.

"It's Ronnie. He's alive," she filled in. "I've seen him." Caitlin sounded a little choked up, but hopeful.

"Caitlin, that's wonderful." Barry walked over and offered her a hug, which she accepted immediately.

"It is wonderful. And it'll be even better once we can split him and Martin Stein apart," she told him.

"That's what this is for," Dr. Wells cut in, holding up a circular device. "The quantum splicer we designed is meant to reconstitute the two men into their original bodies. They weren't just merged due to being meta humans, however. Stein was working on a project called FIRESTORM and we have reason to believe he had something called the FIRESTORM matrix with him on the night of the accelerator accident. Ronnie had been converted to energy by the explosion and his meta abilities triggering and would have been drawn to the matrix as a stabilizing agent."

"Then the FIRESTORM matrix required a second person to fully stabilize and Martin Stein was pulled in too?" Barry guessed.

"That's our theory. The quantum splicer will siphon off the extra energy they've built up both from the night of the explosion and since then," Hartley said, taking over the explanation. "But it has to then expel that energy in what has the potential to be a large explosion in and of itself. We'll need some time with Ronnie and Stein before using the splicer to determine how big of an explosion it'll be and what the minimum safe distance will look like."

"Which is where you come in," Cisco piped up, taking his own turn. "FIRESTORM gives them pyrokinesis when they're combined and apparently their control isn't great. But if you can convince them to come with you, your suit will afford you protection and your healing should take care of anything the suit doesn't. Also we've banned Hartley from making project hot stuff jokes for the duration of this rescue."

"Oh thank god," Barry muttered. 

Eddie snickered. "I can't believe you haven't told Iris about the suit's code name."

"Don't you dare," Barry hissed.

The smirk on Eddie's face was answer enough. He dared alright.

"Anyway," Caitlin cut in, looking amused, "I've prepared a dose of anti-psychotics that should help stabilize them mentally while we run tests on their energy output so that the splicer can be finalized."

"Once finalized, you'd need to run them out to a safe location," Dr. Wells took the explanation back over. "Our current thought is to utilize Ferris Air, but that may not be distant enough from the city."

Barry nodded. He'd done some testing out there after his speed had kicked in and was a good distance from the city, but he could tell just from the equations on the white boards that littered the room that it was probably still too close for this purpose.

"I've been checking out homeless shelters all day and I found a Freespace shelter they've frequenting," Eddie told Barry. "They rarely stay the night there, but there are a few places nearby they've been known to sleep. So you'll need to check those places for them first before widening the search."

Barry nodded and, one quick change later, was dressed in the Flash suit.

"My mother will be joining us soon so that she can be here for when we get dad back," Lily told Barry, forewarning him that there'd be yet another person who might learn his identity as the flash that evening.

He nodded at her and then got his first location to check from Eddie. Then Barry was running. The city slowed to a crawl around him as he headed towards a bridge.

Underneath the bridge was a parking lot, but no one was sleeping there tonight. Over the comms, Eddie sent Barry to a park next. He checked the whole place over and while there were a few people sleeping on benches, no sign of their missing meta humans. (Barry made note of some anti-homeless spikes added to one area that he could easily dismantle so it would be safe again. No cameras in around, so no need for him to worry about being caught even at super speed.)

The third location was a building not far from the Freespace shelter where Ronnie's picture had been identified, so Barry made a quick check through the shelter too. Ronnie and Stein weren't at the shelter and they weren't in the building down the street.

Last location Eddie had been told about was a spillway near the highway. It was covered in graffiti and there were a few people camped out there for the night. Including Ronnie-Stein.

Their hands were on fire and they were just... staring in fascination. They were far enough away from the rest of the people in the spillway that though the onlookers were watching, no one actually dared approach FIRESTORM. Except, of course, for Barry.

"Uh, hi? Professor Stein? Ronnie Raymond?" And of course they immediately went on the defensive in reaction to Barry's approach. Glancing around to be sure no one else could see his face, Barry pulled off the cowl. "I'm not here to hurt you or fight with you, okay?"

"You're the Flash," they said, but their guard lowered a little. "You... look familiar. You... you were on the train. When I was coming back to Central City, the day before the accelerator was meant to turn on."

"Oh... that's right. I guess we didn't really introduce ourselves. I'm Barry Allen. It's nice to see you again, Professor." Barry remembered the Professor on the train that day, nearly a year ago. Kind eyes, white hair, and good taste in reading material. 

"I'm not really myself at the moment..."

"That's okay." Barry pulled off one of the comm units from his cowl and held it out. "There are some people who'd like very much to talk to you. Just hold it up to your ear. There's a mic in there too, so they'll hear you."

"The lightning bolts are a bit much, don't you think?" Stein - certainly he seemed to be the dominate personality at them moment, anyway - accepted the unit as the flames on his hands went out entirely and then put the unit up to his ear.

"I don't design the suit, I just wear it. You'll have to take up any complaints about the aesthetic to STAR Labs." Barry pulled his cowl back up enough so that he could listen in to both sides of the conversation.

"Martin," said a voice that could only be Clarissa Stein. "Martin, is that you?"

"Clarissa?"

"Dad!" And there was Lily.

"My little flower..." 

Barry closed his eyes and, for a moment, he couldn't help but feel a little jealous. He wanted his dad back - safe and free - so bad. He wanted his mom back from the dead. He wanted miracles... but he'd already gotten more than a few that year, hadn't he? Time to let someone else have a few miracles of their own.

He listened as Lily explained to her father about the quantum splicer and the drug combination Caitlin thought would help calm their shared mind.

"Cait," they breathed out and that had to be pure Ronnie, for just that moment. The reverence in his tone...

"Let Barry bring you back to STAR Labs, dad. Please." Lily's voice was heartbreaking and moments later Clarissa echoed her daughter's plea.

FIRESTORM nodded and gave Barry back his comm. "I can fly there."

"So I've heard, but my way is still faster, if you don't mind." Barry grinned when they nodded and then he was slipping back into the speed force. Leaning into his powers like this, Ronnie's body was practically weightless to Barry. He took the shortest route back to STAR Labs, not stopping until they were in the Cortex once more.

Caitlin approached, presumably to administer the medicine, and Barry went to rejoin Eddie and Dr. Wells on the other side of the room. 

"How long do you think it'll be before you're ready for me to run him past the city limits?" Barry asked.

"It'll probably take as an hour to take all the scans and interpret the results. Another half-hour to an hour to finish the splicer and calculate the minimum safe distance," Wells answered. "We can call you when we're ready if you've got somewhere else you need to be."

Barry shrugged. "It's not so much that I have to be somewhere else. Just... don't want to get in the way. This isn't really my area of science and... you know what they say about too many cooks in the kitchen."

"I'm going to run by the station to pick up the paperwork needed to close out the missing persons case and then head back here," Eddie said. "If you don't mind? I'd just... like to see this through."

"Of course. Actually," Dr. Wells pulled off his RFID id card. "You can use this to let yourself back in. Just don't forget to bring it back to me when you do."

"Thank you, Dr. Wells." Eddie waved to Cisco and Hartley, stopping over to let them know he'd be back soon, before heading out.

* * *

While Barry is busy being a hero, Len pulls out a sketch notebook.

Electrical engineering had been more than a hobby while in prison, it had been a sort of obsession that had kept Len on an even keel when he might've found trouble along other avenues. He had a talent for the subject and Len had no doubt he could easily get a bachelors degree in that area if he had the time and money to pursue it. Certainly his knowledge would serve him well pursuing the less expensive vocational degree necessary to become a certified electrician.

But the point is that Len had a very good understanding of how electricity worked. And he had a decent understanding of how Barry's powers worked from listening to his boyfriend ramble on excitedly about them for hours. Between the two subjects, Len already had more than a few theories about what might interfere with Barry's powers.

Extreme cold would make it more difficult for Barry to maintain his speed and slow him down. Extreme heat could potentially excite Barry's powers, causing him to lose control or burn through his energy reserves faster, leaving him exhausted.

Previously these had been thought exercises, done more so Len could help Barry work on strategies to counter his weaknesses than because Len had any intention of exploiting them himself. But now Len knew Barry wasn't the only speedster in town. And that changed the ballgame, as it were.

Len had a few ideas about devices capable of instantly lowering the temperature to sub-zero temperatures. When it came to disabling the powers of a hostile speedster... the lower the temperature, the better the weapon.

Flipping the notebook open to a fresh page, Len hesitated a moment and then scrawled at the top of the page 'cold gun mark 1'.

* * *

Barry is dozing in bed with Len when he gets called back to STAR Labs.

The splicer is ready, minimum safe distance calculated, and all Barry has to do is run them out into a deserted stretch of land outside the city. Once Barry himself is a safe distance away from Ronnie and Stein, the splicer went on and the explosion, even at Barry's distance, is shockingly loud. Hartley could probably hear it even without the comms. But somehow it's anticlimactic from there.

He ran Stein back to STAR Labs first, followed quickly by Ronnie. And the reunions are tear-inducing to view.

("Are you crying, Eddie?"

"Shut up, you're crying too.")

And then Barry gets to go back home and collapse back into bed and then maybe Len's hands go somewhere interesting. Barry's just glad neither of them have work in the morning.

Sunday is a slow day. They all sleep in and then Barry, Len, and Lisa do their grocery shopping together in the afternoon. It's domestic and lovely and what was an idle thought the day before becomes a kick in the chest because... Barry would very much like the sense of permanency that the three of them moving in together would bring.

"Hey, Len..." Barry asked when the groceries were put away. "What would you think about you, me, and Lisa getting a new place together?"

The startled expression that greeted the question was worrying, but the smile that bloomed in its wake was all the reassurance Barry needed.


	5. Chapter 5

Cisco knocked on the door, practically bouncing with impatience and hoping that the noise Hartley just made is one of amusement and not annoyance. He knows his enthusiasm can be... a little over the top sometimes.

But they hadn't seen Ronnie since the night before - or that morning, technically, it had been after midnight, after all - and it was like he was back from the dead. Cisco needed to see Ronnie (and maybe hug him a few times) just to be sure what had happened was real.

The door opened to reveal Caitlin standing on the other side. "Come on in," she told them both with a wide, happy smile.

One of Hartley's hands drifted to the small of Cisco's back as they headed into Caitlin's apartment. It was a reassuring touch and Cisco leaned towards his boyfriend a little.

Ronnie was sitting on the couch as they walked inside, but he stood up and waved them both over. Cisco made a beeline for Ronnie, pulling the other man into what was sure to be the first of many hugs.

"Hey Cisco," Ronnie greeted, hugging him back. When they let go, Ronnie turned to Hartley and pulled him into a hug too. "So you finally asked him out," Ronnie teased Hartley. "About time, man."

Hartley huffed. "I asked him out exactly when I was ready to."

"Technically you asked me out because you didn't realize you were thinking out loud." Cisco took Hartley's hand in his. "Which was very cute, to be honest."

"Cisquito!"

Caitlin giggled, more carefree than Cisco had seen her since... nearly a year ago. 

They all settled down on the furniture - Cisco got another hug in before settling in beside Hartley - and the four of them just talked. Ronnie related some of what it had been like to be FIRESTORM and Caitlin spoke about some of the research they were doing into identifying the genes that interacted with dark matter. The meta genes, as it were. Cisco talked about some of the projects he'd been working on while Hartley brought up somewhat more practical concerns.

"Technically you don't work at STAR Labs anymore because, legally, you're still considered dead," Hartley pointed out. "I don't doubt that Harrison will want you back at your old job with an offer of back pay - and he'd better offer it regardless of whether you come back or I will be having words with him - but you're kind of in a legal limbo right now."

"Yeah. I need to find a lawyer and get the process of being declared alive started," Ronnie agreed. "I just... don't even know where to start."

"Barry knows Oliver Queen," Hartley mused thoughtfully. "Better than I do, certainly. More recently too. And Oliver's been through the legal process of being declared undead. I bet Barry could ask him for advice on your behalf."

Cisco snorted in amusement. "I'm pretty sure the first step in becoming legally undead is finding a vampire."

"Just as long as you don't start sparkling like Edward Cullen," Caitlin hedged, and it felt so good to hear Ronnie's laughter as he promised not to go the _Twilight_ route.

He'd thought he would never hear Ronnie laugh again. And it hit Cisco in that moment, hard, that Ronnie was here and whole and alive and...

"I'm going to get some water," Cisco said around the sudden lump in his throat. Hartley had to hear something was wrong in his voice - they all did - but Cisco was out of his seat like a shot and headed into the kitchen before they could say anything.

Cisco was too busy sniffling and wiping at the tears that seemed to come out of nowhere to hear Ronnie following him into the galley kitchen. So he jumped when the other man's hand landed on his shoulder.

"Are you going to be okay?" Ronnie asked.

"Pretty sure I should be asking you that. The last year sounds like it was pretty awful for you." He bites back the 'and it was my fault' he wants to tack on. Ronnie seemed to hear Cisco's unspoken words anyway.

"You did the right thing, closing the door like I asked you to," Ronnie told him. "I want you to know that. If you'd waited, the door wouldn't have finished sealing in time. We'd have all died. Caitlin would have died. I can't even imagine coming back from being FIRESTORM to the two of you dead. Or what losing you both would've done to Hartley or Dr. Wells."

"Everyone keeps telling me it was the right thing to do. And I know, rationally, that it was the right call." Cisco's voice shook. "But I still closed the door and living with that decision has been so..." Cisco's voice choked off with a sob.

Ronnie wrapped Cisco up in another warm hug. "I'm really proud of you, Cisco."

Snuffling softly, Cisco clung to his friend and finally began to believe it would be okay to forgive himself.

* * *

"Detective, I need to speak with about that case you reopened."

Joe looked up at Desmond and nodded, following him up to the lab. "You got something off the new evidence?" he asked hopefully, once the door was shut behind them.

"The blood samples should not have been viable," Julian said immediately. "But they were. There were a lot of really weird things about the blood samples too. The cells are still... for lack of a better term, regenerating. When I inspected the samples through my microscope, I saw literal sparks of energy at the cellular level. All the samples had to have come from a speedster. But... not all the samples came from the same speedster."

"So there were two speedsters there that night?" After a moment's thought, Joe could see how that made sense. Two speedsters fighting around Nora but never touching her, just filling the air with red and yellow lightning. Then Barry came down the stairs and one of the speedsters stopped to stare at him. Threaten him even. But the other speedster ran Barry to safety while the one who'd threatened Barry murdered Nora in a way guaranteed to frame Henry. But why...

Joe had to believe he'd find those answers eventually.

"Yes. I received the DNA results this morning. When I realized how weird the samples were, I put a rush on the analysis." Julian picked up a file from his desk and handed it to Joe. "Three of the samples I collected came from the same source. As of yet unidentified, but I'm still running database queries so we might get lucky. But I can already tell you, that's your murderer."

"Why's that? Why not the other speedster?" Joe flipped through the pages in the file, but they were just lab results. Nothing that jumped out and said 'DNA of a murderer'.

"Because the other DNA did have a match and I have no doubt he didn't kill anyone that night. But he may have saved himself." Another file was plucked off the desk and handed to Joe.

More cautiously, Joe opened the second file. And then nearly dropped it. "Barry. But that's impossible."

"Barry wasn't a speedster fifteen years ago and the telomeres on the DNA are too short for that of an eleven-year-old. But someone approaching their thirties?" Desmond shook his head and sighed. "I really can't believe I'm suggesting this, but... somehow, in the next few years, Barry is going to travel back in time to the night his mother died."

"That sounds crazy," Joe objected.

"Crazier than being able to run fast enough to break the sound barrier? Than being able to run up the side of a building to catch a jumper?" He opened his mouth to give a third example, but Joe held up a hand to silence him.

"You can't tell anyone that you know Barry's the Flash."

"Well, I should at least tell Barry."

"Fair enough." Joe sighed heavily. "What the hell happened in that house fifteen years ago?"

* * *

"The DNA taken from under both victims fingernails was a match for Zolomon's," Barry told Donelli and Peterson. "The second victim still hasn't been identified but her DNA is a partial match for an Aaron Cobb who lives in Texas. No criminal record, but his DNA is on file because he was suspect of arson at one point. No known siblings and it's not a close enough match to have been his daughter."

"We'll have to contact him to see if he knows her," Peterson said, flipping through Barry's findings. "At least now we've got plenty of evidence to arrest Zolomon with."

"If we can find him to re-arrest him," Donelli grumbled. "Some anonymous benefactor paid Zolomon's bail on the evidence tampering late last week. Surprise, surprise, he's in the wind now."

Which certainly sucked, but... "I was curious about what turned up regarding those necklaces." The pendants still bothered him, even now.

"They were bought with cash, but the artisan recognized Zolomon's picture," Donelli told him. "Said he bought a dozen of the necklaces the last week of August. He didn't know if Zolomon had been in prior to that - only remembered him from that visit because it was such an expensive purchase to be made without using a card or check. I thought it'd trace back to Garret somehow. We still can't link Zolomon back to her."

August... Barry discovered his speed in late August. He didn't take down Mardon until the first week of September, but that last week of August was when he'd started running faster than was supposed to be humanly possible. At the same time Zolomon bought lightning themed necklaces. A dozen of them, two of which had turned up on two murder victims with his DNA under their fingernails. And he started growing increasingly sloppy at hiding his evidence tampering.

There shouldn't be a connection between the two events, but his brain kept looking for one anyway. And he honestly wasn't sure if he should tell Donelli or not. If there wasn't a connection, then it was just Barry's brain seeing connections where there weren't any. If there was a connection, then Zolomon was targeting Barry for something and that made Barry running evidence on the case a conflict of interest.

He hadn't even adopted the lightning bolt as his symbol until after the incident with Mardon and the tornado. So it had to be a coincidence.

Barry shook off that train of thought for now. If he could find a real connection between himself and Zolomon, he'd tell Donelli then.

For now, he had other evidence to discuss with them.

* * *

"So... you found Barry Allen's blood in the house where he used to live and immediately jumped to the conclusion it had to be time travel?" Singh sounded skeptical. Which was fair, Julian supposed.

Annoying, but fair.

"Not exactly. But unless current day Barry Allen pulled off that wallpaper, added his blood to the wall as it is now with the markers of someone with active powers that leave trace amounts of electricity in his wake, and somehow artificially aged that blood fifteen years before putting the wallpaper back exactly as he found it... time travel is as good an explanation as any," Julian answered. "Please tell me you've at least vaguely heard about telomeres."

"Vaguely," Singh responded, tone dryly amused.

"Okay, so telomeres are basically throw away code at the end of our DNA. They are there to protect the important parts of our DNA from getting lost during the process of cell division when our DNA splits apart to be copied and then recombined. Babies have long telomeres and they grow shorter as we age. They're one of several markers in the blood that can be used to estimate a person's age. Because the blood itself dried and was then saturated with paste from the wallpaper, any protein markers and the like are basically useless. But the blood cells themselves were in unnaturally good condition due to the trace amounts of energy left by Barry's shiny new powers. The ones he didn't have, fifteen years ago. So the DNA in those cells could still be studied and sequenced."

"Thus your belief that Barry is going to time travel to the past in the near future." 

"Yes."

Singh looked at Joe. "And you also believe this theory."

"We've a lot of really weird things happening in this city this year. Stuff previously in the realm of science fiction." Joe shrugged. "What's one more?"

Not helpful. Julian had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes.

"What about the other speedster?" Singh finally asked. "Is he a time traveler too?"

"Ah..." Joe glanced at Julian.

"I can't imagine Allen being so reckless as to travel back otherwise. In fact... it may not even have been the Barry Allen we know now. Imagine someone with Allen's powers and none of his restraint. Allen, of course, is a thorn in their side, so they decide it'd be better to just... nip the problem in the bud, as it were. Kill Barry as a child so that he never has a chance to become a speedster. Except Barry himself tags along for the ride into the past and... he saves himself from being murdered. So his mother was murdered and father framed instead as a sort of... punishment." Julian was just making it up as he went, but it fit the data they had thus far.

"And in this scenario, the older version of Barry Allen came from a timeline where his mother never died," Joe filled in.

"We don't know enough how time travel works to be sure."

Singh made an unhappy noise. "We don't even know that time travel is even the answer here. Could it be that eleven year old Barry's blood took on the speedster aspect due to a... propensity for that particular power and contamination from the killer's blood?"

"It's possible, but it wouldn't explain the length of the telomeres." Julian wondered if it was bad how much he wanted to laugh at the expression on his Captain's face.

"We're not saying it's time travel," Singh grumbled. "I'm not saying rule it out, but... we're not definitively calling it time travel right now. So, Joe. When are you telling Barry what you've found?"

If the Captain's face had been comical, then the pained expression on Detective West's face was truly hilarious. Julian had no doubt Joe was trying to find a rational argument for not telling Barry. And failing.

"Joe, you have to tell him. He deserve to know what's been found so far. It's not a guarantee for his father's release, but depending on what else you can find it might be the start of a successful appeal," Singh reminded him.

Julian was less certain about the appeal. Given the irregularities with the blood collected at the scene, it wouldn't hold up in court if district attorney assigned to the appeal decided to attack it's legitimacy. And if Julian tried to defend his findings, his career would potentially take a hit as the DA's office would be less than thrilled with his controversial court statements and thus less likely to want to put him on the stand in future cases. What they really needed was to find the real murderer and get a recording of him confessing to the crime.

"I know, I know," Joe sighed, interrupting Julian's thoughts. "I'll tell him. After Thanksgiving."

"If he doesn't know by next Monday, I'll tell him myself," Singh warned West. Given both men's expressions, Julian had no doubt that was more threat than promise.

* * *

"How was work?" Len asked and Barry blinked at him owlishly before narrowing his eyes. "What?"

"You've got this... weird tone."

"What tone, I don't..." Len tried to protest.

"No, no, he's right," Lisa cut in. "That's your 'buttering up' tone. The one you use before you admit to screwing something up. It's rare, but it's there."

Scowling now, Len insisted, "I do not have a... buttering up tone."

"You do and it is bizarre." Barry grabbed a beer out of the fridge and joined the siblings on the couch. "If this is about how you ate the last of the white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, I already know and am plotting vengeance. So don't worry about it."

Lisa snorted with laughter. Len rolled his eyes.

"Alright fine, so I might have been trying to gauge your mood. And I did not eat the last cookie. Mick did."

"There were two cookies Len," Lisa interjected. "And then there were none. Mick ate one, sure. But Barry and I both know who ate the other one."

"Lise..." Len gave her a look and she subsided.

"What is it?" Barry asked, growing serious. "Does this have to do with that person you ran into last week?"

The problem with having a forensic investigator for a boyfriend was that he was very good at connecting the dots.

"Yeah." Len sighed. "I didn't just run into him. I went to him for help with this." He pulled out the dead webcam and put it on the coffee table. "I found that in the second floor guest bathroom at Joe's place on the weekend. The sweeps missed it 'cause the battery pack was dead. Probably was dead for a while, but whoever planted it didn't think it was worth replacing."

"Len... you contacted a hacker you used to know." Barry says it without inflection. A statement, not an accusation.

"He was never an associate of mine. I just happened to know him because he was an associate of my father's." Technically the terms of his parole only forbade him from contacting his former criminal associates. Len got away with Mick because nothing Mick did after Juvie stuck and he'd successfully petitioned the courts to have his juvenile record sealed before becoming a firefighter and 'upstanding pillar of the community'. (The look on Mick's face the first time Len called him that had been priceless.)

"I doubt Parole Bitch would see it that way," Lisa muttered darkly.

"I really, really wish you'd told me about this beforehand." Barry looked somewhere between amused and resigned. "I know a hacker who'd have helped us. It would've meant taking the camera to Starling City to visit Felicty, but..."

"Felicity Smoak. Pretty Felicity Smoak? She's a hacker?" Lisa perked up. "That's so hot."

"You know she works IT," Barry objected.

"Tch, anyone can work IT. Hell, I could work IT. I manage my own website," Lisa scoffed. "Hacking is a whole 'nother skillset. Is she single? Would she be interested in a one night stand with a security professional who would like to worship her body, brain, and illegal skills?"

Len choked. Lisa looked unrepentant.

"She's in an intense will-they-won't-they with Oliver, but I'll ask. As long as they're not actually dating yet, she might say yes." Barry raised an eyebrow at Len's betrayed expression. "Any unwanted details about your sister's sex life are the least of what you deserve for risking your parole, Len. Please tell me the risk paid off? Did you find anything out?"

"I got an address where the IP resolved to, but whoever had a setup there had already packed it up. Not a trace of the computers or even the router left. Might get something if you were to check with the local internet providers, but even if you could get a name it'd probably be fake. But... there was a witness. Homeless guy in the alley said there was a speedster who'd been all over the place the night before." He watched Barry stiffen. "A speedster wearing a yellow suit."

"The man who murdered my mother." Barry sounded numb now. "He's been spying on me."

"It looks that way," Len confirmed. "Paid the guy for his info and advised him to find another alley to squat in." Hopefully the guy had found a shelter to stay at. Never mind the danger if the other speedster realized there was a witness; it had been getting steadily colder since October.

Barry looked green around the gills. "The way he looked at me as a kid... what if he was there that night for me? What if... what if I'm the reason my mom is dead?"

"No." Lisa threw her arms around Barry. "No. You are not responsible for other people's decisions, Barry. Do you... do you know how many times I wondered what I did wrong for Lewis to get so angry with me? But it wasn't my fault he hurt me. And it's not your fault that this person, whoever he is, chose to hurt you and your family."

Quietly, Len put a hand on Lisa's shoulder and squeezed lightly before kissing Barry on the cheek. "If it wasn't about you then, it is now. I've got a few ideas I'd like to run past your nerd friends at STAR Labs. Ideas for tech that could be used to protect you from this other speedster."

"I'm fast enough to get away on my own," Barry said, pulling out of Lisa's hug and offering her a warm, if somewhat watery, smile. "It's everyone I'm worried about." Which, truly, was very Barry.

"My ideas would work for that too," Len agreed, deciding he had no room in which to complain about Barry's hero complex. For now, anyway. "My only concern is... anything we build to fight another speedster could be used against you too."

"But having the designs means we can also develop counters." Barry's expression grew determined. "It'll be worth it."

Len certainly hoped so. But if he had his way, no one would be able to use that cold gun except for him.

* * *

"You know, at first I thought you were the Flash." Zolomon some sort of the lightning bolt pendant in his hands; the chain was missing and he flipped between his fingers like a coin. The pendant itself was a fairly common design, though it bore something of a resemblance the the Flash symbol. Enough so that Eobard had done something of a double take at the sight of it.

"I think I'm insulted," Eobard joked, standing up from his wheelchair.

"Oh come now," Hunter retorted, amused. "You can't tell me there isn't a certain amount of poetry in playing the hero and being the villain."

Which probably explained why Zolomon had spent so many years manufacturing evidence as his whims demanded. He could assume the part of a CSI dedicated to the truth when the reality was that he simply playing god. It was a fascinating divergence from the previous timeline's version of the man. He had been a criminal profiler and hadn't embraced his darker impulses until a mishap with the Negative Speed Force had turned Zolomon into a speedster with few concerns about morals. Eobard had taken him in as an apprentice and passed on one of his monikers to the other man.

Zoom.

Eobard had a certain fondness that Hunter Zolomon. But he wasn't so sure about this one. Perhaps he reminded Eobard a touch too much of himself. "No, you're right. I do understand the appeal quite well."

Zolomon smirked. He probably thought he'd just won something. So very young...

Eobard retrieved a small case from beside the couch and handed it to Zolomon. "Everything you asked for and, perhaps, a bit more."

Zolomon lazily settled onto the couch and placed the case on the coffee table, flicking it open. Inside were nestled 12 vials and the chemical formula for the serum contained within them. "This is... quite generous. That's twice the amount of formula we agreed on."

"Seemed to me you deserved additional compensation for accelerating the plan."

"I do regret that I didn't get time to draw things out further," Zolomon replied, shutting the case. He went back to flipping the pendant between his fingers again. "But it was worth shedding that life for this. I do hope that I achieved the results you were looking for?"

"Indeed. The police are tied up tracking the depth and breadth of your crimes and having to re-investigate every case you were involved with. It's tied up police resources quite nicely. The pendants were a nice touch. Seems you took what I told you about the Flash to heart." Eobard had no doubt that Barry Allen had been quite disturbed to find those two among the evidence removed from the bodies.

"Ah, yes, the pendants. Well, you did say I should leave a calling card." Zolomon stood, taking the case with him. "I'm still trying to think of my new identity. Any suggestions?"

Perhaps it was sentimentality. Eobard began to vibrate his whole body, letting the Speed Force bleed into his eyes and the vibrations distort his voice. "I've had quite a few names over the years, but once I was known as Professor Zoom. Perhaps that name can be yours now." He let the vibrations end, enjoying the look of covetous awe on Zolomon's face.

"Zoom," he echoed. "I like it."

Eobard didn't bother to return to his wheelchair before letting Zolomon out of his house. The area around his home was secluded enough that it was unlikely anyone would ever know Hunter Zolomon had been there.

"It's almost a shame," Eobard mused to himself as he wandered towards his kitchen to make a calorie heavy snack. He'd loaded that case with twelve doses of and the chemical formula of V9... but Eobard never had managed to stabilize it. A dose taken once every few weeks was safe enough. Certainly Zolomon had shown no ill effects from the dose Eobard had hooked him with back in August. But the speed never lasts long when it's artificially induced. And Zolomon had no patience.

He'd run enough tests to be sure he could recreate the formula himself and verify it was the same thing he'd taken last time. And then he'd unwittingly overdose on V9 before he'd even finished the vials Eobard had pre-prepared for him, not realizing his immune system and internal organs were compromised until it was too late. Eventually V9 would start wearing off faster and faster until Zolomon would be lucky if it lasted more than an hour.

It would a terrible, slow, and painful way to die. But he still had a purpose to serve before that end.

Eobard never noticed the pendant slipped between the cushions of his couch.

* * *

There's an itch in the back of her mind. It's been there for a while, though Caitlin can't be sure how long since she hadn't noticed it until after she'd nearly been burned in the parking lot.

But it's been growing louder since then. The pessimistic part of Caitlin is terrified this will end badly. The optimistic side of her is elated to be getting back two of the people she loved and lost within a few days of each other.

So she waits for Ronnie to fall asleep and slides, carefully, out of bed. Ronnie's sleeping harder these last few days, though there's no telling when his sleeping habits will return to normal and Caitlin needs to do this alone.

She slips into the bathroom and shuts the door. Then Caitlin faces herself in the mirror. She can't help but feel like every choice she'd made in her life since waking up to find herself alone in her own head again was made to lead up to this moment. Every form of meditation she'd learned, her biochemistry degree, her employment at STAR Labs... all decisions made with a singular goal.

Closing her eyes, Caitlin concentrated and breathed out, feeling the condensation on her lips as her cold breath met the warmer air. "Are you awake?" she asked quietly.

When her eyes opened, the woman in the mirror had stark white hair and ice blue eyes. Lips that looked almost purple from the cold turned up in a sly smile and a line of frost spread out from her hands along the counter top.

"Hello Caity."


End file.
